UCLA Bowled Over by Big Arizona Plays

A bowl game?

Nope.

Winning season?

Forget about it.

All of the holes in the UCLA dike, believed plugged over the last four weeks, sprang leaks during a 12-minute, 46-second span of the third and fourth quarters Saturday. Arizona parlayed Kelly Malveaux’s interception, Keith Smith’s fourth-down pass to Mike Metzler and Chris McAlister’s kickoff return into a 35-17 victory at Arizona Stadium.

That was one way of looking at it.

Bob Toledo had another way.

“It was a comedy of errors,” said the UCLA coach, who was not laughing.

Those errors turned a 14-7 Bruin halftime lead into a loss that turned plans for postseason play into pipe dreams. UCLA is 4-6, 3-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference, with only USC to play.

That the UCLA offense ground to a halt in the third quarter, snowed under by a series of Arizona blitzes, didn’t help.

“We didn’t perform,” Toledo said. “We didn’t block people. We didn’t run. We didn’t pass block. We didn’t complete passes. I mean, we just didn’t execute. Guys weren’t making plays.”

Arizona’s were.

The Wildcats, hammered a week ago at Oregon, 49-31, spent a week in soul-searching, with Coach Dick Tomey handling most of the search. He used 50 minutes in Eugene to take his players apart--particularly those on defense--and held individual meetings all week to put them back together.

It worked. After Oregon rushed for 310 yards against the Wildcats, UCLA ran for only 70.

“The really sharp turnaround just came from Tomey drilling us,” said quarterback Keith Smith, who completed 12 of 20 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown and ran 14 times for seven yards. Among those runs was one for 29 yards, and five sacks for losses of 30 yards skewed the statistics.

“We had to win this game. The whole week was pride, pride, pride, whatever it takes. And we did it. Every part of the game came through: special teams, defense.”

Which also meant that every part of UCLA’s game had a problem.

The first was the Bruin offense, which had generated Skip Hicks’ one-yard run to his school-record 18th touchdown of the season and Cade McNown’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Danny Farmer in the second quarter.

In the third, with the ball on the UCLA 23, McNown faded for a quick-out pattern to Farmer. Arizona cornerback Malveaux suspected it was coming.

“I had a strong feeling they were going to do the ‘out,’ from the situation down there and looking at the film,” he said.

He lay in wait.

“He was kind of hanging out there and I thought he was behind the play,” McNown said, “but I also probably threw the ball behind [Farmer].”

And into the hands of Malveaux, who had cut in front of the play and had no one between him and the goal line.

“It was my first touchdown,” Malveaux said. “I played defense in high school [and three seasons at Arizona] and never scored.”

The game was tied, 14-14, and the momentum was Arizona’s.

“It was 14-7, and it obviously gave them a big boost,” Toledo said. “But I don’t think any one play makes a game. It was still tied after that play. There were a handful of plays that were big.”

The next one put the Wildcats (5-5, 3-4) in control.

Near the end of the third quarter, they called time with the ball on the UCLA 36, fourth and two.

“There was no question we were going to go for it,” said Tomey, who had watched a Wildcat fourth-down play in the second quarter fail miserably when Smith was hit for a six-yard loss.

The question was with what play. That was answered when Smith faked a handoff, faded back and looked to his left, where running back Charles Myles was covered. Then Smith looked downfield, where tight end Metzler was waving his right arm.

Metzler had left UCLA cornerback Kusanti Abdul-Salaam in his wake and gathered in the pass for the score.

“He just ran a little drag pattern, and I kind of bit on the play action,” said Abdul-Salaam, the former Andy Colbert. “I made a bad play.”

“It was designed just to get the ball in the flat and get the yards,” Smith said. “Metzler was my second choice.”

Door No. 2 made it a 36-yard touchdown and 21-14.

UCLA countered with a 40-yard Bjorn Merten field goal, which set up the game’s most exciting--and the Bruins’ most frustrating--play. Chris McAlister, a UCLA legacy whose father, James McAlister, was an All-American, gathered in Greg Andrasick’s kickoff two yards deep in the end zone and sailed 102 yards the other way for a 28-17 lead.

No one touched him.

“I told them not to kick it to No. 11,” Toledo said, “but I guess they were lined up stacked and switched at the end and he obviously got the ball.”

Big plays against the defense, turnovers, a breakdown on special teams. It’s the story of the UCLA season, which has added to the highlight films of a lot of schools.

“Absolutely,” Toledo agreed and added that he was particularly perturbed about the second-half letdown. “They out-physicaled us. They kicked our butt.

“It was like a heavyweight fight,” said the coach who on Friday night showed his team an edited video of Evander Holyfield’s victory over Mike Tyson in an attempt at motivation. “You’ve got to fight to the end.”

By the end, two fumbles had been added: one by Keith Brown on the Wildcat 18 that nipped a UCLA rally in the bud; and one by McNown on the Bruin 15 that set up Leon Callen’s run for the game’s final touchdown.

Oh, and five UCLA passes were dropped.

It has been an oft-told story, and Chapter 11 in this bankrupt season is Saturday at the Rose Bowl against USC.