Bruins Turn Over New Grief

How does one begin to describe Washington State’s 31-13 Pacific 10 Conference victory over UCLA on Saturday night, a game in which the teams combined for 14 turnovers--six in the third quarter alone -- and 21 penalties for losses of 189 yards?

Bruin flanker Ryan Smith got right to the point.

“It was the ugliest football game I’ve ever been a part of,” Smith said after UCLA blew a good chance to upset the nation’s 12th-ranked team in front of 33,846 in Martin Stadium. “It was a joke.”

On UCLA.

The Bruins knocked out Cougar quarterback Matt Kegel in the first quarter, and Kegel’s backup, freshman Josh Swogger, was ineffective, completing five of 16 passes for 82 yards and throwing several high-risk passes while in the grasp of UCLA defenders.

The Bruins forced and recovered four Washington State fumbles and intercepted three passes, with several of the turnovers giving UCLA possession deep in Washington State territory, but converted only two of them into points.

UCLA quarterback Matt Moore struggled so much, completing 11 of 29 passes for 138 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions, that he was pulled for backup Drew Olson in the fourth quarter for the second consecutive game.

A decent game by freshman tailback Maurice Drew (80 yards in 23 carries) was offset by two lost fumbles, and though it wasn’t considered a turnover, the Bruins botched a punt snap that led directly to a Cougar touchdown.

“Washington State was definitely ripe for an upset,” UCLA linebacker Justin London said. “They were ready and waiting to be upset, and we fell short. We didn’t get it done.”

Two weeks ago, the Bruins were riding a five-game win streak with visions of a possible Rose Bowl berth. With losses to Stanford last week and now Washington State, UCLA fell to 6-4, 4-2 in the conference.

The Cougars (8-2, 5-1) opened a half-game lead over USC in the Pac-10 race and kept their Rose Bowl hopes alive, but the Bruins will be fortunate to earn a berth in a low-tier bowl, such as the Insight.com Bowl or the Las Vegas Bowl.

“We have too much heart to go into the tank,” Smith said. “Next week we play Oregon, which we owe for the last two years, and then USC. We want to go to the best bowl game possible. We don’t want to go out like chumps.”

For a taste of UCLA’s frustration, check out these third-quarter sequences:

* Swogger fumbles a snap and Dave Ball recovers on the Washington State 17-yard line with 14:51 left in the period. Three plays later, Moore is hit, fumbles, and D.D. Acholonu recovers for the Cougars.

* Swogger is hit, and his wobbly pass is intercepted by cornerback Matt Ware and returned 13 yards to the Cougar 22 with 4:38 left. Drew fumbles a pitch on the next play, and Washington State’s Faafetai Tupai recovers.

* A poorly thrown Swogger pass is intercepted by UCLA strong safety Jarrad Page with 3:01 left, giving the Bruins the ball at their 48. Tyler Ebell’s 28-yard run on second down moves the ball to the Washington State 19, but Moore’s pass to Craig Bragg is intercepted at the three-yard line by Jason David.

“We had the ball three or four times in the red zone and didn’t come out with points -- that doesn’t win games,” UCLA guard Eyoseph Efseaff said. “We have a great defense; they played their butts off. We’ve got to score points. That’s on us. We had our chances and didn’t execute our jobs.”

The game turned on two plays just before halftime, one a UCLA fumble and one a low snap on a punt. Both led to touchdowns that enabled the Cougars to extend a 14-6 lead to 28-6.

It appeared Washington State would blow out UCLA when it scored twice in the first seven minutes, Jonathan Smith scoring from one yard out after racing 47 yards with a screen pass and Kegel hitting tight end Troy Bienemann with a 32-yard touchdown pass, which was set up by Drew’s fumble.

But two Cougar turnovers led to field goals of 46 and 32 yards by Justin Medlock to make the score 14-6 with 2:55 left in the half. UCLA seemed poised to cut further into the deficit when Craig Bragg fielded a punt near midfield and juked his way through several defenders to the Cougar 20.

But Bragg fumbled after being hit by Erik Coleman, Jeremy Bohannon scooped up the ball and returned it 72 yards to the UCLA 12. Smith, who had 130 yards rushing and 85 yards receiving, burst up the middle for a touchdown on the next play, making it 21-6 with 1:56 to go in the second.

After three plays netted nine yards, UCLA’s Chris Kluwe dropped back for what would have been his eighth punt of the first half. He never got it off. Riley Jondle’s snap was low -- it was his first bad snap of the season -- and Kluwe was tackled at the nine. Smith took a handoff and raced around the right side for a nine-yard touchdown run with 1:22 left to give Washington State a 28-6 lead.

“The defense gave us great field position,” Smith said. “It was 14-6, we were inside the 30, then we fumble, [mess up the punt], you look up at halftime and it’s 28-6. Every time we turned around, the other team’s got the ball.”

As bad as the Cougars played, they were efficient when given opportunities -- it took them only seven plays and 81 seconds to mount their four first-half scoring drives, which totaled 104 yards.

“It seemed like we were back in the game at 14-6, and those critical plays really distanced us from where we should have been,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said.

“We had way too many turnovers and penalties. Those are hard to overcome.”

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KEYS TO THE GAME

Mike DiGiovanna’s keys to the game, and how the Bruins measured up:

Neutralize the blitz: The Bruins did a better job than they did against Stanford last week -- quarterback Matt Moore was sacked four times for losses of 29 yards by Washington State, compared to the eight sacks he absorbed against the Cardinal.

Get creative on offense: Moore rolled out on a number of pass plays and set up in the shotgun often, and the Bruins added a few more pitch plays and draws. That helped UCLA keep Moore out of harm’s way, but the Bruins, because of turnovers and penalties, didn’t generate enough offense to upset the Cougars.

Make the Cougars work for their points: The Bruins failed miserably in the first half, when Washington State needed only seven plays and 81 seconds to complete four scoring drives, which totaled 104 yards.