Table Was Set, but Bruins Go Hungry

There was only one thing as frustrating to Matt Moore as watching UCLA commit seven turnovers and lose the game.

Seeing Washington State commit seven and win it, 31-13.

“It ticks you off, because here they give us the ball, what, seven times? And we just give it right back to them seven times,” Moore said.

“Take advantage of those opportunities, and it would change the whole game. So it’s very frustrating.”

Three of those turnovers belonged to Moore -- two interceptions and a fumble.

Two belonged to running back Maurice Drew, who fumbled twice.

“I just didn’t hold onto the ball,” Drew said. “I have to hold onto the ball if I’m going to play.”

The other interception belonged to Drew Olson, who replaced Moore in the fourth quarter.

And one fumble was charged to normally sure-handed Craig Bragg, who returned a punt 29 yards to the Washington State 16 only to lose the ball and watch Washington State’s Jeremy Bohannon take it 72 yards the other way to set up a touchdown.

“Perhaps I was trying to do too much,” Bragg said. “Somebody had my leg and I tried to spin out of it. I got hit and lost the ball.”

There was yet another situation that was just as good -- or as bad -- as a turnover.

But the bad snap on a punt that led UCLA to give up the ball on downs at its nine-yard line, leading to yet another touchdown, technically wasn’t a turnover.

“It was just crazy the way things happened,” Bragg said.

Moore was the leader of an offense that couldn’t hold onto the ball when it had it, and couldn’t take advantage of field position when it came wrapped with a bow on top.

Seven times, the Bruins got the ball on a turnover inside the Washington State 40-yard line. Six times, it was inside the 30.

All they had to show for it was two field goals.

Three times, they turned the ball over themselves after getting it on a turnover.

“We had a lot of opportunities,” Drew said. “We just didn’t make the best of them.”

Moore, making his third start since returning from a bone bruise in his leg, completed only 11 of 29 passes for 138 yards and lost for the second week in a row.

Though Olson came in late in relief for the second week in a row, Coach Karl Dorrell said Moore remains the starter.

“Yes. There is no controversy,” Dorrell said.

Moore, while frustrated, said he understood the coaches’ move.

“I react as if they’re giving Drew a shot to try to spark the offense. That’s the way I took it,” he said. “Yeah, it’s upsetting, you want to be the man, but that’s what they tried to do.”

On a night when both teams had trouble holding on to the ball for no obvious reason -- the weather was dry and not particularly chilly for November in the Palouse -- the Bruins are still searching for reasons their offense isn’t working.

Moore liked the play-calling, just not the execution.

“Taking what we do in practice and doing it, it’s harder than it looks. It’s not that easy,” he said.

“I thought I was trying to do too much. I think you can get like that in a game like this, the magnitude.

“Another thing that killed us was not only turnovers but penalties. It’s uncalled for, any personal foul. I can see a holding here and there. Personal fouls, we need to do without.”

In a locker room where words like “frustrated,” “ticked off” and “rough” were all around, there’s an important issue looming.

“My job, I’ve got to keep a tight ship and really try to focus on unity and staying together,” Moore said.