Bruins Miss Short-Handed Goal : UCLA seems out of sync with quarterback rotation, so maybe it would be better to stick with one.

Less than a week after writing that Cory Paus should eventually be the UCLA quarterback, a red-faced observer cupped his hands over his mouth when Paus trotted on to the field here Saturday night and yelled like heck.

“No! No! No!”

Two hours later, the same observer watched Paus take the same field, run into the same huddle, and promptly cupped the same hands over the same mouth.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Stop this quarterback rotation. I want to get off.

A credible performance by many kids on suspension-thin UCLA here Saturday--despite what a 42-20 Ohio State victory may look like--was marred by an increasingly suspect situation with their leader.

Or, leaders.

Or, whatever.

That was Paus’ word afterward.

“Whatever,” he said when asked if he was growing weary of the situation.

Counterpart Drew Bennett offered the same tired look.

“I don’t really pay much attention to it,” he said.

Then Bennett was the only one not watching Saturday when after leading UCLA toscores on two of its first three possessions, he was removed from the game.

Why? It was in the script. Hollywood and all that, remember?

Bennett was going to run three series, Paus was going to run three series, and the coaches were going to reevaluate at halftime.

Nobody counted on a surprise beginning--as in, UCLA leading 10-7 with Bennett as its leader.

The rowdy red-draped crowd and creaky Ohio Stadium was quiet. The revered Buckeye band had its white gloves on its laps. The Bruins had a chance.

Then Paus came into the game, everybody exhaled, and that chance was lost.

The Bruins, who had gained 162 yards in three series under Bennett, gained 15 years in two second-quarter series under Paus.

When he left, that 10-7 lead was a 21-10 deficit.

By the time Bennett started the second half, despite an initial run-heavy touchdown drive, it was clear that he had also exhaled, and was never the same.

So Paus replaced him in the fourth quarter and finally moved the team, only to have Brad Melsby and Danny Farmer each drop a pass in the end zone.

Either catch would have put UCLA within a touchdown and a field goal with plenty of time remaining.

Instead, the Bruins settled for a field goal, and ended the game having never quite started.

Confused yet?

And folks here thought watching that band write that funny script Ohio was dizzying.

This will probably be remembered by Ohio State fans as the game in which the Buckeyes found their 1999 quarterback. They began the game in a similar rotation as the Bruins, but sophomore Steve Bellisari took charge, and that was that.

For UCLA, this will be the game that the search stretched painfully onward.

It still says here that Paus is the guy.

But after watching the offense struggle to find consistent footing under either guy Saturday, it would be great if Bob Toledo just picked somebody and stuck with him.

The same way he stuck with Cade McNown and his young buddies several years ago.

There was a time, in fact, when McNown and his pals came skipping onto the field of another Big Ten powerhouse, and left there soaked in discouragement.

The year was 1996. The team was Michigan. The final score was 38-9.

That season, the Bruins were 5-6. Many losses, but one team, one group of players, and one mission.

Two seasons later, that same team nearly won a national championship.

If UCLA truly is going to rebuild this year, maybe it should give its quarterback the same consistent chances it is giving its other young players.

“Not a lot of difference to me who plays quarterback,” said Freddie Mitchell. “Neither one of them was throwing the ball to me.”

Come to think of it, make Mitchell the quarterback. He’s the most exciting player on the field, and Saturday he completed one more pass then he caught.

With no continuity at quarterback, there is no continuity at wide receiver, or running back, or even the offensive line.

Would Bennett have thrown that third-quarter ball behind Farmer for an interception, then later let that ball pop out of his hands for a fumble if he had been in the game the entire time?

“Of course you let down a bit on the sidelines,” he admitted.

Would Melsby or Farmer have dropped Paus’ fourth-quarter bullets if they had grown accustomed to catching them earlier in the game?

“Sometimes it’s a little harder,” Paus acknowledged.

The biggest shame is Bob Toledo and Al Borges are still concocting offenses that can win games, if only they had the leader to do it.

Many times Saturday, it was clear the Bruins had fooled an Ohio State team that had two weeks to prepare for them.

But almost never did the Bruins have the timing to pull it off.

That stuff is found out in games and in practice, with the same group of players, over and over again.

One of those players, not coincidentally, must be the guy taking the snap.

“We may go two games with it, we may go three games with it, I’m not going to make any big decisions right now,” Toledo said late Saturday.

Wait not, want not.

Pick a guy, any guy.

You know that joke about how a team with a quarterback controversy is a team with no quarterbacks?

It is no joke.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.