Bedeviled by Details in Opener

In UCLA’s season-opening, 31-20 loss to Oklahoma State, the Bruins played hard and had some success on offense, but they failed to do the little things that help teams win.

It’s an issue second-year Coach Karl Dorrell will have to correct quickly with his Bruins, who played nine true freshmen and 10 redshirt freshmen Saturday.

“You saw the youth of our defense, and they have to grow up quickly,” Dorrell said after the Cowboys rushed for 426 yards and four touchdowns. “But that wasn’t the only issue. Like most games, we lost because of miscues.”

The Bruins not only turned the ball over four times, they also suffered numerous fundamental breakdowns against the disciplined Cowboys.

Senior wide receiver Craig Bragg made the first mistake when, after catching a short pass from quarterback Drew Olson, he didn’t carry the ball in his outside arm, was hit and fumbled, ending the Bruins’ first possession with a turnover.

Later in the half, UCLA was primed to break a 14-14 tie when sophomore running back Maurice Drew fumbled inside the Cowboys’ 20. On the play, Drew, who had problems with fumbles as a freshman, did not have a good grip on the ball after taking the handoff but still tried to cut behind the line of scrimmage.

Drew would have had a chance to make the move if junior tight end Marcedes Lewis and senior tackle Paul Mociler had completed their blocks on the backside of the play. But they didn’t, and Drew gave the ball up after being tackled by their assignments in the backfield.

Oklahoma State went on to take a 21-14 lead on a 13-yard run by backup tailback Greg Jones that was made easy by UCLA’s defensive alignment. With the ball in the middle of the field, the Cowboys changed to a formation with two tight ends on the right side after the Bruins tipped off a blitz by their strong safety.

Instead of making an adjustment, UCLA kept three defenders against Oklahoma State’s four blockers on the right. The Cowboys ran an option play to that side, and the result was an easy touchdown for Jones.

“They dominated the whole front, it didn’t matter if it was linemen or linebackers,” UCLA defensive coordinator Larry Kerr said. “That was the obvious point of the football game.... We knew they were going to run the football, but you have to be able to get off blocks and make plays.”

UCLA turned to a more aggressive approach in the second half, and the Bruin defense had better success against the run. But again, they made things more difficult for themselves when they needed a key stop.

That was the case with four minutes left in the third quarter and Oklahoma State ahead, 28-20. On third down and two from their 28, the Cowboys hurt the Bruins with a misdirection play.

With the ball again in the middle of the field, the Bruins stacked the left side to combat Oklahoma State’s two tight-end set. But that exposed UCLA’s right side and the Cowboys took advantage with an outside pitch play to Vernand Morency, who ran for 38 of his game-high 261 yards.

Six plays later, Oklahoma State kicked a field goal and UCLA was behind by 11 points.

The Bruins had a chance to cut into the Cowboys’ lead midway in the fourth quarter when Drew caught a screen pass and ran 57 yards to the Oklahoma State 12. Drew probably would have scored if Lewis had made a downfield block on Cowboy safety Jamie Thompson, who slowed down Drew enough to prevent a touchdown

On the next play, Thompson intercepted a deflected pass by Olson to end the Bruins’ last real hope for victory.

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The Bruins, who will play at Illinois on Saturday, got a solid effort from the offensive line, which did a good job protecting Olson and opening holes on running plays. Olson showed signs of improvement but missed a couple of throws that could have ended up as big plays. Junior Taylor was shaky and could lose playing time if Tab Perry is moved from flanker. UCLA completed only two passes to Lewis, who looked good in his limited work.

Sophomore Kevin Brown led UCLA’s defensive linemen with five tackles, followed by Justin Hickman’s four. Linebackers Wesley Walker and Danny Nelson did not play well. Expect redshirt freshman linebacker Aaron Whittington to get more practice time this week.