Inconsistency Still Prevails for Bruins

UCLA’s six-point, fall-from-ahead loss at Arizona State on Saturday basically sums up the Bruin season after seven games.

Flashes of greatness overshadowed by mistakes and poor execution.

That’s why the Bruins are 4-3 instead of 5-2 or 6-1, and why they failed to hold onto an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead against the Sun Devils.

“We’ve got us a good team, but they just have to learn how to win,” offensive coordinator Tom Cable said about the Bruins, who are still in the thick of the Pacific 10 Conference race at 2-2 heading into this week’s game against Stanford at the Rose Bowl.

Quarterback Drew Olson’s roller-coaster season has had far more ups than downs. He has completed 59.1% of his passes and thrown for nearly 1,600 yards with 14 touchdowns.

But his low points -- nine interceptions -- have been hard to forget. In the 48-42 loss to the Sun Devils, Olson passed for a career-high 325 yards and completed throws to 10 receivers but his four interceptions were costly.

“That’s the thing for a quarterback,” Cable said. “[Olson] throws eight touchdown passes [over two games] and everyone says that he’s improving and wants to jump on his shoulders. He goes out and struggles [against Arizona State] and everyone wants to blame him and he wants to blame himself. But there were 10 other guys out there with him.”

UCLA’s offense was expected to be improved this season, but not this good. Highlighted by Maurice Drew’s record-breaking rushing game at Washington on Sept. 18, the Bruin offense has been explosive, averaging 33.1 points and nearly 450 yards a game.

Bruin opponents also have been having success on offense.

Arizona State’s Andrew Walter passed for 415 yards and six touchdowns despite UCLA’s best pass-rushing day of the season. By featuring an assortment of blitzes, the Bruins had stretches where they applied good pressure on Walter, sacking him three times.

But UCLA, which had only five sacks in its first six games, couldn’t cover the Sun Devils’ Derek Hagan and Terry Richardson, each of whom finished with more than 150 yards receiving.

“They played hard. They created some things, made some plays, made some interceptions,” defensive coordinator Larry Kerr said about the Bruins, who held Walter under 50% in completions and intercepted him three times. “But we can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Big plays have been a big problem for the Bruins this season. In the last two weeks, UCLA has given up seven touchdowns of 20 yards or more, including three of more than 65 yards against Arizona State.

“Everyone’s playing hard and that’s what makes [losing] so tough,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “We keep making mistakes that keep coming back and biting us.”