For Once, Defense Wears Badge of Honor at UCLA

We’ll refrain from dishing out sheriff’s badges. After all, the last self-appointed sheriff who came to town wound up getting kicked out of Dodge(r) City.

So let’s just say there’s one tough posse holing up in Westwood these days. It’s the UCLA defense, and it’s changed the whole approach to UCLA football.

Saturdays at the Rose Bowl used to be high-scoring affairs, like an NBA All-Star game. Last team with the ball wins.

Now the Bruins can stay in games defensively. The D basically made UCLA mistake-proof last week against Ohio State, allowing the Bruins to prevail despite four fumbles by the offense and missed field goals and a blocked punt by special teams.

“In the past, we had to try to outscore everybody, because we knew we weren’t going to stop anybody,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “It’s a little different.”

Different in that the defense might actually be more reliable than the offense. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

The Bruins play at Oregon State today, and don’t expect the Beavers to rack up 44 points the way they did in last year’s meeting. But don’t count on the Bruins reaching the 38 points they posted last year, either.

Quarterback Cory Paus has managed to avoid injuries so far, , but he still hasn’t displayed that knack for magic that Cade McNown had. Brian Poli-Dixon, who was supposed to replace Freddie Mitchell as the top receiving threat, keeps dropping passes.

Running back DeShaun Foster is having trouble holding onto the ball as well. And when he does hang on, defenses are stacking the line of scrimmage against him and sending two or three men at him wherever he goes.

“They’re putting up numbers, trying to stop me,” Foster said. “They’re trying to make Cory win games. So that’s what he’s doing so far. It’s cool. It’s all right.”

It’s all right because the defense keeps coming through. No team has scored more than 17 points against the Bruins in the first three games. Opponents averaged 29 points a game the previous three seasons.

Meanwhile, there has been only one offensive outburst for the Bruins: 41 points against a weak Kansas squad. UCLA used to be good for at least 30 points a week, no matter the competition.

UCLA hasn’t won games in this style for years. The Bruins beat Ohio State, 13-6. The last time UCLA won while scoring 13 points or fewer was a 9-6 victory at Oregon in 1992. The offense fumbled and the defense held. The offense went three and out, and the defense held. Ohio State scored its lone touchdown by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone.

There’s a slight shift in offensive philosophy blowing in.

“It might be third and five, it’s all right if we don’t get the first down,” Foster said. “Our defense is going to be out there, still stopping them.”

Against Ohio State, Toledo ran a draw play on third and seven, then happily punted.

Could Toledo be growing a little more--dare we say it--conservative? He cringes at the sound of that word, as if it’s an insult.

“I hate to say conservative,” he said. “I ran a reverse [against Ohio State]. I ran a reverse pass. I ran a swinging gate. If you want to call me conservative ... We threw the ball 26 times. If that’s conservative, then I’m conservative.”

But he is adjusting to his team.

“You’ve got to kind of see what your defense is doing and play to that as well,” Toledo said. “It’s a team game. I think one of our problems in the past was that maybe we were a little too pass-happy. I hate to say that. But there were times when we needed to pull back and run a little bit.”

In previous seasons, the offense was sometimes too successful for the team’s good, scoring so quickly that the defense would have to rush back onto the field without enough rest. In 2001 we’ll probably see less razzle-dazzle, and hear more of such dreaded phrases as “field position” and “clock management.”

“That was our whole thing in the Alabama game,” Toledo said. “The Alabama game was, ‘Hey, we’re going to work the field position. We’re not going to lose the game. They’ve got a new team, a new [coaching] staff, let’s let them lose the game.”’

There’s a new attitude on defense as well, a healthy change for the guys who have been victimized by opponents and criticized by observers.

“It’s been a real treat,” senior free safety Marques Anderson said. “Going through the last couple of years, kind of being dogged--’What’s up with your guys’ defense?’--to finally have everything on our defense clicking to the point where we have a game such as Ohio State and perform good ... it makes you feel confident.

“We know you’re only as good as your last game. If we like this feeling now, we have to keep going out and performing week after week.”

A lot of the credit goes to new defensive coordinator Phil Snow. His secret is nothing revolutionary; simply the basics. In the early going, he quizzed his players on such elementary things as the dimensions of the field. He stressed three things: execution, playing hard for six seconds--the average length of a play--and tackling. He also showed his players tapes of the Baltimore Ravens, who had the best defense in the NFL last season.

“They have a few big hits, but the majority of them are just sure tackles,” Anderson said. “Sometimes it’s not about the big hits.”

And sometimes it’s not about the big numbers on offense. At least, that’s the way it looks for this 2001 version of the Bruins.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.