Turnovers the Key to Repeat of 66

It seemed a throwaway question and was taken about as seriously as the answer, which was not at all.

Question to UCLA quarterback Cade McNown: Can you win another game like the one at Texas, by a 66-3 score?

The answer from McNown: “Don’t count on it not happening again.”

It made for a good laugh, save in Arizona, where the scenario was misappropriated the next day for a headline in the student newspaper, apparently meant to fire up the Wildcats.

Nobody’s laughing now.

McNown went on to say, “ . . . if the defense does what they did against Texas, take the ball away eight times, and if we don’t turn the ball over and if we get the ball in the end zone, that’s what happens, you put up a lot of points. All I’m saying is it happened once, it could happen again . . . “

It did Saturday, more or less, because the Bruins generated six turnovers in a 66-10 victory over Houston.

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The Bruin record book, which takes football back to 1919, does not show a three-game scoring run like they have had since beating Texas, 66-3, on Sept. 13. That was followed by a 40-27 victory over Arizona and the 66-10 dumping of Houston, giving UCLA 172 points in the three games. Closest was in 1954, when the Bruins beat Stanford, 72-0, Oregon State, 61-0, and California, 27-6, en route to a 9-0 record and the United Press International version of the national championship.

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Larry Atkins, who had intercepted a pass or recovered a fumble in each of UCLA’s first four games, was shut out Saturday. . . . The victory over Houston gives Bob Toledo a .500 record (8-8) as UCLA’s coach. . . . The Bruins moved up to No. 18 in the AP poll and No. 19 in the USA Today/ESPN poll.

NEXT UP FOR UCLA

Who: Oregon

Where: Autzen Stadium

Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

TV: FX

Radio: AM 1150