Oregon Makes Day a Dark One for UCLA

Maybe UCLA should have played at night.

Without the lights.

The Bruins’ 31-13 loss to Oregon at the Rose Bowl on Saturday afternoon was a cover-your-eyes kind of game -- one that mercifully wasn’t on local television after UCLA declined to move the game to 7 p.m.

“What a bad day this was,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said after his team’s third loss in a row sent the Bruins stumbling toward a finale against No. 2 USC on Saturday at the Coliseum.

“We were reeling right from the beginning.”

Quarterback Drew Olson -- restored to the starting job after Matt Moore’s performance in last week’s loss to Washington State -- threw an interception on UCLA’s third play that Oregon’s Jerry Matson returned 22 yards for a touchdown.

Before the first quarter was over, Oregon’s Samie Parker had beaten UCLA cornerback Matt Ware for a 40-yard touchdown reception, and the Bruins watched Oregon’s Kenny Washington run through their entire team for a 97-yard touchdown on a kickoff return.

With that, UCLA trailed, 21-3.

The Bruins were behind at halftime, 31-6, and didn’t score a touchdown until 12 seconds remained in the game.

“It just wasn’t a very good game. That’s on us. That’s on our coaching,” Dorrell said. “It’s a shame we’re playing this way at the end of the year.”

It was a game that presented UCLA with an opportunity to clinch a berth in a bowl game by winning for the seventh time this season.

Instead they are in limbo. Barring an upset of USC, they will finish 6-6, making them eligible for a bowl only if the Pacific 10 Conference doesn’t have enough qualified teams to fill its commitments to six bowl games, as appears likely.

Even so, the Bruins could be passed over for another six-win team with a more appealing profile than a four-game losing streak, or they could end up in the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose on Dec. 30, hardly a game to stir enthusiasm.

Oregon (7-4, 4-3) took care of business, clinching a bowl berth with representatives from the Holiday, Sun and Insight games in attendance.

The Bruins’ ineptitude seemed to sink to new lows, a week after they committed seven turnovers in the loss to Washington State.

UCLA seemed to catch a break in the second quarter when Brandon Chillar recovered a fumble at the Oregon 20-yard line.

Four plays later, UCLA had completed a zero-yard scoring drive.

They turned a third-and-three situation into third-and-eight with a false start, then lost two yards by giving the ball to tailback Maurice Drew to a chorus of boos among the crowd of 56,083.

Justin Medlock kicked a 37-yard field goal to at least salvage something, making the score 24-6.

The next UCLA possession went even more poorly.

On fourth and four, the Bruins decided to go for a first down instead of a 39-yard field-goal attempt, then took a five-yard penalty for delay of game, forcing Medlock to try a 44-yard attempt. The ball hit the left upright, and UCLA came away empty.

Before the half was out, there was yet another sorry series.

UCLA was at the Oregon 21 on second down, but Olson took a sack and then threw an incomplete pass under pressure.

The Bruins went for it on fourth and 13 from the 31, and Olson was sacked yet again.

“I was frustrated as hell to go out and not be able to move the offense. When this offense doesn’t move, it’s largely because of the quarterback,” said Olson, who played the entire game, completing 29 of 49 passes for 249 yards with one interception and one touchdown. (The 49 attempts were the second-most in UCLA history to Dennis Dummit’s 51 in 1970 against California.)

Nothing was more frustrating than the wasted field position.

“When we get in the red zone, it’s like a wall comes up in front of us,” Olson said. “We’ve got to get past that barrier, or we’ve got no chance next week [against USC].”

Four times, the Bruins went for it on fourth down. Three times, they failed.

On fourth and sixth from the Oregon 30 in the fourth quarter, Olson recovered a high shotgun snap, scrambled to somehow elude the rush and saw tight end Blane Kezirian in the end zone without a defender within 10 yards.

Olson got the pass off, but it was high, and Kezirian got only one hand on it.

“That was frustrating, but that was kind of how it went,” Olson said.

“We just haven’t been executing like we were earlier in the year. I wish I had an answer, because it would be solved.”

The season-long quarterback controversy seems moot, with neither player able to claim the job.

As the game wound down, someone in the stands called for third-stringer John Sciarra.

Dorrell, beleaguered much of his first season despite spending time in first place, said there would be a “relentless pursuit to do better.”

“That’s something I’m not ever going to give up on. We’ll continue working and grinding,” he said.

“We’ve just got to do a better job of coaching. We’re just not getting it done.”

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KEYS TO THE GAME

The Times’ keys to the game, and how the Bruins measured up:

Don’t turn the ball over: This didn’t last long. Drew Olson had a pass intercepted on the Bruins’ third play, and Terry Matson returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. It was the Bruins’ only turnover, but the tone was set.

An efficient passing game: Forced to the air because the Bruins were behind, Olson completed 29 of 49 passes for 249 yards, but threw the pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, and was sacked six times. The abandoned running game netted only 78 yards.

Limit Oregon’s options: The Ducks didn’t need the option, scoring three touchdowns in the first quarter on an interception return, a 40-yard pass and a 97-yard kickoff return. Kellen Clemens completed 21 of 27 passes.