Last Gasp, Last Grasp

In the final seconds, several Oregon State players turned their backs on the game to proclaim their superiority by waving towels above their heads and prancing before the UCLA fans. “We’ll be back,” flanker T.J. Houshmandzadeh hollered, the Beavers very much alive in the race for the Rose Bowl.

Another week, another loss for the Bruins, this one leaving them disgusted and demoralized. The Bruins utterly collapsed in the fourth quarter Saturday and were torched for 604 yards of total offense in their third loss in four games, this one by a 44-38 score.

Yes, Virginia, the Beavers might play in the Rose Bowl. The Bruins, who spoke boldly last month of a national championship run, are suddenly a question mark to win the two more games necessary to qualify for even the lowliest of bowl games.

“Our days of looking toward bowl games are over,” tight end Bryan Fletcher said. “We have to take it one game at a time now.”

The Bruins (4-3 overall, 1-3 in thePacific 10 Conference) lost at home, a presumed safe haven for a team that has not won a road game in two years. They lost despite the return of star tailback DeShaun Foster. They lost despite quarterback Cory Paus throwing for a career-high 363 yards.

And, most alarmingly, they lost a 31-21 lead in the fourth quarter, with the defense failing as the offense stalled. The Bruins have given up 150 points in four conference games, so no one expected UCLA to pitch a shutout, but the Bruins held Oregon State to seven points in the first half.

Could the defense preserve a 10-point lead with under 13 minutes to play? Not even close, with the Beavers reeling off big plays almost at will. In the next 11 minutes, the Beavers scored 23 points. The Bruins scored none.

The Beavers (6-1, 3-1) marched 60 yards in two minutes, including passes of 20 and 35 yards, and Ryan Cesca kicked a 32-yard field goal to close the Oregon State deficit to 31-24. On the Bruins’ first play from scrimmage, tailback Akil Harris lost a fumble at the UCLA 20. On the next play, Oregon State tailback Patrick McCall ran for 13 yards. Two plays later, Oregon State quarterback Jonathan Smith threw the four-yard touchdown pass that tied the score, 31-31.

The Bruins, in the midst of an 11-minute drought without a first down, went three plays and out as Foster lost three yards and Paus threw two incomplete passes. The Beavers struck again, with their first two plays an 11-yard pass and a 23-yard run, and Cesca soon hit a 31-yard field goal. The Bruins went three and out again, all three incomplete passes by Paus, and the Beavers got a 44-yard field goal from Cesca.

The Bruins didn’t deserve a break at that point, but they almost got one when Smith fumbled at his goal line, with linebacker Marcus Reese recovering for what might have been a tying touchdown. However, the referees had cited Oregon State for a false start, and the Beavers kept the ball.

“I was already standing on the sideline when I heard the call,” Reese said. “I didn’t see a flag or anything.”

UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said the referees had made the right call and said, “The game didn’t swing on just one play.”

The game did swing on third-down plays. The Beavers converted an astounding 12 of 18 third downs, clinching the victory as tailback Antonio Battle ran for 22 yards on a third-and-21 draw and McCall turned a third-and-two run into a 66-yard touchdown dash.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t stop a draw play on third down,” linebacker Ryan Nece said. “That’s just bad defense.”

Toledo refused to blame the defense. The Beavers ran 90 plays and had six drives of at least 60 yards. The Bruins’ already hobbled defense lost linebackers Nece and Robert Thomas and linemen Mat Ball, Ken Kocher and Rusty Williams to injury at various times during the game.

“We didn’t wilt in the fourth quarter,” Toledo said. “We fought back, but our defense wore down and got beat up. When you keep playing, you get tired and you get hurt.”

Said cornerback Ricky Manning: “I don’t think we were wearing down.”

So what happened?

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ve got to find out what it is and stop it.”

Manning could hardly believe he was answering questions about the same team that beat Alabama, beat Michigan and rose to the top 10 of the national rankings. The Bruins will drop out of those rankings today.

“It just slipped out from under us. There’s no way we shouldn’t be the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 team in the nation right now,” Manning said. “We’ve got to be perfect the rest of the season.

“We’re not just going to win four games. We should win way more than four games.”

Way more? Nece suggested one more would be the appropriate goal at the moment.

“Each week is going to be a challenge for us. We haven’t even gotten our fifth win yet. We’ve got to get two more wins before we can even talk about a bowl,” Nece said.

“We need to earn respect. We’re trying to play for respect and pride.”

*

J.A. Adande

A bruised and bloodied UCLA defense is burned for 604 yards. D14

T.J. Simers

It’s another long and season for the Bruins and Trojans. D2