Houston, It Was a Real Problem

It was the perfect analogy. The handful of UCLA players in one corner of the sweltering visitor’s locker room at Robertson Stadium, a few in chairs and a few in full recline on the trainer’s tables, extended their arms to get the I.V., the surest sign of the toll the heat and the humidity and even the Houston Cougars had taken on them.

And then they got up and walked out.

Those were the Bruins of Saturday afternoon, beaten up, severely in some cases, but not beaten, able to gut out a 42-24 victory over a four-touchdown underdog before 19,540 in what they will argue was as much a testament to their heart as the first three quarters a week earlier was to their ability. It’s simply that it was hard for them to celebrate.

Freddie Mitchell, the explosive receiver-returner, was lost for the season after breaking his left leg in the first quarter and scheduled for surgery Saturday night while the rest of the team returned home.

Kenyon Coleman, a starting defensive end, sprained his right knee and is expected to be sidelined about a month.

Center Shawn Stuart, guard Andy Meyers and cornerback Jason Bell, all starters, sat out about the last five minutes of the opening half when the weather, better than it could have been but still bad enough, forced them to an early intermission to refuel with the needle.

Beyond that, though, it was a great day.

“Everything was wearing down on us,” tailback Jermaine Lewis said after tying a school record with four rushing touchdowns, part of his 63 yards in 16 carries. “The heat. Injuries. Everybody was fighting through it. But none of us ever gave up. We showed a lot of poise.”

Said Stuart: “I think we came in here ready to play, and bad things happen sometimes. We had bad things happen. You can’t expect it to be like the first half versus Texas all the time.

“Some of the guys are a little upset. Some guys just need to fix what they did. The No. 1 thing we got out of this game was that we dealt with adversity early, we dealt with it late and we handled it well overall.”

The early was not only Mitchell’s injury, which, as if to drive home what his game-breaking presence means to the Bruins, came at the end of his 47-yard kickoff return. There were the other scheduled obstacles. The Cougars.

Houston scored first, on a 34-yard field goal by Mike Waddell.

And then second, on a 39-yarder by Waddell.

It didn’t exactly put UCLA in panic mode, but it was, it turned out, an early statement. The team that came in 0-2 and had a combined 17 points to its name controlled the scoreboard in the opening quarter.

“I think we might have surprised them,” Cougar quarterback Jason McKinley said.

Not so, the Bruins said later, insisting this was no letdown after the big victory over Texas last week and no ambush because they were looking ahead to Miami at the Orange Bowl next week.

“They underestimated us,” Houston wide receiver Jerrian James said.

The Bruins again would disagree. Whatever. The question quickly became what the Bruins were going to do about it.

The response was to score three unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter, on runs of one and eight yards by Lewis and a 61-yard pass from Cade McNown to Brian-Poli Dixon. But the Cougars would not be shaken, needing only 1:39 to go 80 yards and make it 21-14 at halftime.

Dominate? The fourth-ranked Bruins were suddenly going for survival.

Even when UCLA opened the third quarter with two more scores, Lewis going over left tackle from a yard out and Ryan Roques intercepting McKinley’s pass to the left flat and taking it back an uncontested 17 yards, the best it could hope for was control. There would be no putting the Cougars away until the final portion of the final period, not when Houston was still within a reachable 35-24 with 9:18 remaining.

McNown was in the midst of what Coach Bob Toledo called an average game, en route to completing 17 of 32 passes for 315 yards, one touchdown and one interception, with Danny Farmer accounting for 100 of the yards in four receptions. Lewis, though superb near the goal line, would not have a run longer than nine yards all day, a prominent addition to the resume for the defense that had allowed only 38 yards on the ground the first two games combined. Even kicker Chris Sailer, the All-American candidate, missed two field goals, wide right from 47 yards and to the left from 42.

To be sure, this was hardly the Bruins at their best. What emerged midway through the fourth quarter, though, was the Bruins at their good enough. Good enough to put together their best drive of the game, good enough to seal the win.

Good timing, too, after the Cougars had closed to 11, still a considerable margin given the difference in talent between the teams, but enough to encourage them to dream the wildest dreams. But when UCLA marched 74 yards and churned 4:05 from the clock, the lead officially became insurmountable, at 42-24 with 5:01 remaining after Lewis slashed in from the three and Sailer added the extra point.

This being one of those days for the Bruins, it didn’t come without a struggle. They needed offensive lineman James Ghezzi to recover DeShaun Foster’s fumble at the Houston 3 to keep the drive alive. But come it did.

“Playing against teams that have attacking defenses, it sometimes takes a while to really break them down,” said tight end Mike Grieb, who had catches of 51, 18 and 11 yards. “I feel like that last drive, they felt like defeat was imminent.”

Even if it took a while.

“It took a long while,” Grieb said.