Poli-Dixon Shows Everyone a Little Something

Brian Poli-Dixon knew what everyone would be thinking the first time a pass came his way Saturday against California.

All the visions of him dropping that wide-open, sure-thing touchdown against Oregon the week before would come right back.

This time he caught the first ball thrown in his direction. And the next one, a 17-yard touchdown pass that he had just enough time to get his hands in front of when he turned back toward the quarterback.

Then he did a little extra, stretching out to haul in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Cade McNown that seemed to be beyond his reach.

“I just wanted to go out there and just show ‘em a little something,” said Poli-Dixon, who finished with four receptions for 78 yards in the Bruins’ 28-16 victory. “I know everybody saw last week.”

If so, then every college football fan should see his diving grab at the goal line.

“[The ball] was kind of hanging,” Poli-Dixon said. “Cade put it in a nice spot--basically the only spot he could have put it in. I just wanted it. I had to come out here and just do something today, so I just thought I’d make a big play out of it.”

Said offensive coordinator Al Borges: “I told him before the game and I told him during the game, ‘You’re going to go off today. Today is going to be your day.’ ”

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Not that Chris Sailer needed the exercise, not with a sore groin muscle that has been bothering him for more than three weeks.

But fate decreed that the Bruin kicker would have to try three times to convert the extra point after the team’s first touchdown, and he managed to escape not only unscathed but successful.

A personal foul and two false-start penalties moved the ball back to California’s 28-yard line, making his third attempt the equivalent of a 45-yard field goal. Finally, the third one counted.

“That was more attempts than I’ve had all year, it seems like,” he said. “But it wasn’t that big of a deal. It gave me a chance to get out there and get warm.”

Although he welcomed the opportunity to stay loose on a day that began with rain and fog and later turned pleasantly sunny, he also ran the risk of incurring further damage to his still-tender groin muscle.

“It wasn’t 100%,” he acknowledged. “But compared to last week it was a big improvement. I’ve still got a ways to go to get it back to where I want it to be.”

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UCLA was losing the field-position game so badly in the third quarter that at one point the Bruins decided to quick-kick on third down, and McNown got off a nice one.

“How far was that?” McNown said afterward.

Forty-nine yards. Which isn’t too bad for a guy who claimed, “I don’t ever kick.”

“Maybe once a month, I’ll go out there and goof around,” he said.

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Linebacker Robert Thomas was part of the two UCLA goal-line stands while playing the final three quarters with a broken left ring finger, suffered when his hand was caught inside another player’s facemask and twisted. . . . Two of the Bruins’ four scoring drives came with the help of 15-yard personal fouls against Cal after the plays had ended.

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Staff writer Scott Howard-Cooper contributed to this story.