Bruins Enjoy the Spoils

At the moment UCLA Coach Bob Toledo weighed the possibilities for disaster, and there were several, Chris Griffith responded with the 22-yard field goal that provided the 23-20 overtime upset of 23rd-ranked Washington on Saturday and everything changed.

The Huskies were not in control of the Pacific 10 Conference race.

The Bruin defense was formidable, again.

The Bruin offensive line was heroic, for once.

All the Bruins were victorious, finally. That was the most important thing in the Rose Bowl’s home locker room, where the postgame Eight Clap was more like a shout and the band wedged into a tunnel underneath the stands to serenade them with the fight song.

It had been that long between wins. Five weeks, to be exact, since they held on to beat Oregon on Oct. 9, before the three-game losing streak, before the lost confidence, before injuries claimed two starters on the offensive line alone in the bye week.

And then to have one come in such dramatic fashion? Against the first-place team that could have taken a major step toward booking a return trip to Pasadena on Jan. 1? In the final home game for the seniors?

Redemption, thy name is Bruins.

The final two games can’t make up for everything that has come before. But they can make for a finish to be proud of: beat Washington, beat USC next week at the Coliseum, actually end this implosion with a winning streak and be able to spend the off-season saying, “See how good we could have been?”

UCLA (4-6, 2-5 in conference) can imagine the possibilities. If nothing else, it was tough to picture the Bruins feeling as good as they do today, having been outscored in the three previous games, 105-14, just in time for a visit from a first-place opponent and a quarterback leading the conference in total offense. And that was before injury was added to insult. OK, insults is more like it.

“That was a courageous effort by a football team,” Toledo said. “A courageous effort. You talk about heart.”

You do because even that was being questioned about the Bruins. Toledo, most notably, said he could see the energy draining from his players’ faces as Arizona rolled through town two weeks ago, just before the break allowed UCLA to at least relocate the enthusiasm. The Bruins hadn’t been this spirited in longer than anyone cared to imagine.

“Maybe since the SC game last year,” tailback DeShaun Foster said after contributing 69 yards and two touchdowns in 24 carries, his heaviest workload of the season in attempts and the second-most productive outing in yards.

Maybe since the Oregon game, other Bruins said, though that was a much different atmosphere, since UCLA wasted most of a 34-10 lead at the start of the fourth quarter before stopping the Ducks on the one-yard line on the final play to win. Maybe since the obligatory emotional high that comes with the season opener, it was also suggested.

And then there is the other reason you talk about heart. Because, for a change, it’s the only part of the Bruin anatomy not being X-rayed or splinted or being attached to ice bags. But there’s always next week.

What once was a hospital ward has now become a comedy club. The offensive linemen have come to cracking jokes about their plight, in true gallows humor. On Saturday afternoon, three members of the beleaguered unit were on the field moments before the two others and Brian Polak said to Oscar Cabrera, “OK, everybody’s here.”

And then there’s the one about the team that was already short-handed and then lost six more starters, maybe for the USC game as well. Quarterback Cory Paus is out for sure because of a broken collarbone, putting Ryan McCann, once the fourth stringer, at No. 1 for the biggest game of the season. Offensive lineman Matt Phelan, himself an emergency starter because of injury, is out for sure because of a broken collarbone, meaning the Bruins are down to the fourth stringer there, James Ghezzi. Outside linebacker Tony White, tied for third on the team in tackles coming in, is doubtful because of a sprained knee ligament.

Tackle Blake Worley (sprained knee ligament), tailback Keith Brown (bruised shoulder) and strong safety Lovell Houston (concussion) are merely questionable. That practically passes for good news these days.

On the field is another matter. The Bruin defense, having lost its early-season momentum in recent weeks, recovered to hold Washington (6-4, 5-2) and its dangerous option attack to 102 yards rushing, and limit all the Huskies to 236 yards of total offense. Quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo came in averaging 271.2 a game on his own.

It was also the defense that set up the winning score, when Tuiasosopo had third and five on the UCLA 16 in the first overtime and threw a pass that was intercepted by strong safety Joey Strycula. That gave the Bruins the ball on the Washington 25 with only a field goal needed to win it.

A failed drive would have prompted a second extra period. But Toledo called three running plays and, not wanting to risk a third blown snap from Ghezzi to the quarterback, in this case McCann, he sent in Griffith. As a precaution against a mistake on the field goal, such as Griffith having his second kick blocked, the Bruin try came on second and two from the four.

Strycula, also the holder, spotted at the 12. Jeff Grau, the long snapper, delivered. Then so did Griffith.