No Need for Bruins to Be Defensive Now

Staunch defense. What a liberating concept for Bob Toledo.

The UCLA coach is a reputed offensive mastermind. It’s why he was hired in 1996, and moving the football is what drives him still.

But so often he has had to play catch-up, or at least keep-up, with a porous defense that surrendered points as fast as his offense could manufacture them.

For the first time in his six seasons, he has a team built on defense. The Bruins are 3-0 by scores of 20-17 over Alabama, 41-17 over Kansas and 13-6 over Ohio State in the home opener Saturday.

The first-unit defense has given up 27 points. Ohio State scored only on a blocked punt.

Toledo is gleeful: “We have a really good defensive team. They’ve been maligned and ridiculed. For them to pitch a shutout [against Ohio State] was outstanding.”

Players are making comments they wouldn’t a year or two ago. “We went out there with the mentality that we would play UCLA-type defense,” senior end Kenyon Coleman said.

Only a year ago, UCLA-type defense meant yielding 30 points a game, blowing leads, giving up big plays and experiencing exasperating mental lapses.

Now it means middle linebacker Robert Thomas getting sacks. Safeties Marques Anderson and Jason Stephens stopping the run and pass equally well. Eight linemen sharing playing time and controlling the line of scrimmage.

All of which gives Toledo room to breathe. Against Ohio State, he didn’t hold back. Rather than save secrets for Saturday’s game at Oregon State, he all but emptied the playbook against the first OSU team on the schedule.

To keep alive the Bruins’ only touchdown drive in the first quarter, he called what could be dubbed the Foster Freeze. Quarterback Cory Paus walked up to the ball and quickly shoveled it to tailback DeShaun Foster, who dashed 16 yards for a first down before the defense realized play had begun.

Other tricks did not work as well. Receiver Tab Perry threw an option pass that fell incomplete, and receiver Craig Bragg was tackled for a loss on a reverse in the last minute. That Toledo called a reverse while running out the clock with a seven-point lead is telling. He’s not accustomed to trusting his defense.

Security was beefed up, some patrons were frisked and some had their belongings searched as they entered the Rose Bowl, but there were no major incidents involving the 73,732 who attended.

Pasadena Police Commander Mary Schander of the strategic services division said there were 15 arrests, a typical number.

She said there were 10 arrests for ticket scalping, three for drunkenness in public and two for copyright infringement, which is selling apparel and memorabilia without a license. Schander would not provide details about security , nor would she say what will be done at future UCLA home games.

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Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this story.