More Like Powdered Blue

They left the Coliseum with eyes straight ahead, faces glum. They tried as best they could to disappear up the tunnel, walking quickly under the scoreboard that read: USC 66, UCLA 19.

They were, on this day, the Gutted Little Bruins.

The descriptions won’t be pretty. UCLA’s football team was thrashed, embarrassed, humiliated. Its coach, Karl Dorrell, mastered the art of the understatement when he called it a “tough game to swallow.”

UCLA was supposed to have a chance in this one. Sure, the Bruins were playing the Monsters of the Midway, they of the 33-game winning streak. They were facing last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, next week’s Heisman Trophy winner, a coach who is a deity, an offensive line that can bench-press a cruise ship, maybe next year’s Heisman Trophy winner if he stays around in the Trojan backfield, and a handful of wide receivers who run like deer and catch like Ozzie Smith.

But 66-19?

The Bruins weren’t supposed to be a joke in this one. They had certainly proved otherwise, with a 9-1 record and a No. 11 national ranking. Their quarterback was rated tops in the nation in passing efficiency. They had three players -- quarterback Drew Olson, tight end Marcedes Lewis and linebacker Spencer Havner -- who would start on any team in the country ... well, except one. Time after time this season, they had come back, mustered great willpower and shown what all believed to be their true colors.

But it all got smudged in a huge, old historic stadium, with the majority of the 92,000 fans dressed in cardinal and gold and thrilled all the way down to their red underwear.

It was the kind of whipping that will bring some derision, but it was so thorough, so one-sided, so over-the-top, piled-on, salt-in-the-wound, that it also brings some sympathy. It couldn’t have been any worse. It is recommended that all people in Bruin blue steer clear of Las Vegas for a while.

When it was truly over, there was more to come. Like a battered boxer trying to crawl through the ropes and go home, the Bruins suffered their final indignity with 3 minutes 33 seconds to play. And then suffered two more.

Maurice Drew had just scored one of those meaningless, garbage-time touchdowns. That cut the USC lead to 59-13, and the Trojan faithful, quickly noting that it had taken this offensive powerhouse, averaging 40 points a game, until now to score a touchdown, turned en masse to the Bruin section in the southwest corner and gave the people in blue a standing ovation.

Spontaneous group sarcasm.

And there was more.

The Bruins did the hope-springs-eternal thing, trying an onside kick. The ball went to John Walker, a defensive back with good hands, who was out there to catch the kick and fall on it. But on this day of Bruin misery, it took a perfect bounce to Walker, who ran it back to the two-yard line, from where the Trojans scored on the next play.

When was the last time you saw somebody run back an onside kick?

And there was more.

The Trojans lined up for the extra point, Mario Danelo kicked it, and it was partially blocked. Over the goalpost. Extra point good. Bruin final indignity suffered.

It was a day when Matt Leinart seemed so caught up in this being his last game for the Trojans in the Coliseum that Coach Pete Carroll called him an emotional mess. Still, the Bruins allowed him 21 receptions, 233 yards and three touchdowns.

It was a day when Leinart made a crucial fourth-down completion. With an underhanded pass.

It was a day when reserve cornerback Justin Wyatt of USC got such a perfect bounce on a fumble that he didn’t even have to break stride on his way to the end zone.

And it was a day when, early in the game, the Trojans got a third-down completion on the sidelines in front of Carroll, and near the first-down marker. When the officials’ mark seemed short, Carroll gestured and pointed to a spot several feet forward. And that’s where the ball went, a first down by six inches.

For their trouble, the Bruins probably will get a spot in the Dec. 30 Sun Bowl, in El Paso, where everybody wants to be around the holidays. They probably will play Northwestern and have a chance to add to their recent postseason woes by losing to a bunch of bookworms. About the same time, another two-loss team, Notre Dame, will be in the Fiesta Bowl, counting its $15-million take.

After the crowds had cleared in the Bruin dressing room, Dorrell went to the locker of his star running back, Drew. He sat in the locker, facing out toward Drew, who sat on a chair, in full uniform, helmet still on. Both heads were down, Dorrell’s touching Drew’s helmet. Neither said a thing, for many minutes.

On a day when everything went wrong for UCLA, their only consolation was that it could never be any worse than this.