Instead of Conservative, Blue Statement Needed

It’s one thing to sound dull, quite another to be dull, and Saturday afternoon UCLA football Coach Karl Dullard was apparently the only man in the Coliseum who didn’t understand the Bruins had to be as exciting as possible, and score a ton of points to have any chance of hanging with USC.

Dullard not only went conservative, surrendering on the opening series of what was projected to be an offensive shootout, but explained later he was trying to pin down one of the all-time great offenses in NCAA history.

Fourth and five on the USC 35 with the Trojans ahead 3-0 -- a momentum win already for the UCLA defense -- and Dullard sent out his punter, who promptly kicked the ball into the end zone without any attempt to angle it to the sideline.

Now if all the pregame hype was to be believed, the Bruins had five yards of firepower with one of the college game’s hottest quarterbacks in Drew Olson, a future NFL star in tight end Marcedes Lewis and a breakaway threat in running back Maurice Drew.

It was a gamble, but the Bruins needed to keep the drive alive and the ball away from USC while building their own confidence. But instead of going for it, Dullard went belly up on his team, electing to play conventional football in a game that demanded the extraordinary from UCLA to have a chance.

Dullard said he was playing for field position, as if that would matter to USC’s powerful offense. In fact, on the next possession, UCLA pinned USC at the three, and eight plays later, USC had gone 97 yards to score again.

“It’s a difficult game to swallow,” Dullard said, especially when you don’t take advantage of your strength -- Olson, Lewis and Drew -- while playing to USC’s.

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CONTINUING THE theme of much-ado-about-nothing stories like the hype surrounding UCLA’s explosive offense, I think it’s pretty obvious now how much the Trojans missed Norm Chow this season.

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USC DESERVES credit for trying to keep UCLA in the game. Instead of making a hand-off machine out of Matt Leinart and really running it up against the Bruins, they inexplicably called on him to throw the ball.

Leinart might own a Heisman and he might be one game away from being one of the top players selected in the NFL draft, but he could have walked to the end of the Santa Monica Pier Saturday, taken aim at the ocean and missed. The Trojans met no resistance on the ground on the first series, running for 70 yards, while Leinart went 0 for 5 throwing, the fans sitting in the stands having a better chance of catching the ball than any of his receivers.

“We were begging them to throw it,” UCLA defensive coordinator Larry Kerr said. “We put eight guys [up front to stop the run], nine guys and played zero pass coverage and opened up the passing lanes for them. We knew the running back was the best player on their football team. We were inviting them to pass.”

The Bruins take great pride in their pass defense, which is ranked No. 1 in the Pacific 10 Conference -- because you’ve got to be crazy to put the ball in the air against these guys when you can run wind sprints through their run defense.

The Bruins’ rushing defense is so dreadful, that when someone says, “At least it can’t get any worse,” well, it did against the Trojans.

UCLA came into the game ranked No. 115 out of 119 schools in stopping the run, but when it was over, the Bruins had dropped to the bottom.

That’s quite a feat, and makes it even more ridiculous that Dullard was in such a rush to get the ball back into Bush’s hands rather than trying to hold onto it as long as UCLA could.

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NICK LACHEY was in the food line in the press box, obviously a long way away from Jessica Simpson and the good life.... Drew McCourt, son of the Boston Parking Lot Attendant, had a credential allowing him to be on the field, which makes you wonder which USC official is getting free tickets from the Dodgers.... When Coach Pete Carroll went to the Trojans’ locker room after the game he got a big bearhug from the Fonz. “Oh my God, I’m so excited,” Henry Winkler said .... At a question-and-answer session at the Annandale Country Club, I was asked for my USC-UCLA prediction, and I said USC by 30. Sam Muir, sitting in the audience, raised his hand and said he’d take 29, with the loser agreeing to donate $500 to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA. Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto has been advised to expect Muir’s check.

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IT MAKES no sense, but then it is the Dodgers. Word has arrived that the Dodgers’ new GM, Ned Colletti, has a deal with free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal.

Cesar Izturis, a Gold Glove shortstop a year ago before getting hurt, is not expected back until the All-Star break, which coincidentally is about the same time the Dodgers are expected to be eliminated from the playoffs. But he will be back, and now there is talk about moving his Gold Glove to second base and Jeff Kent to first.

The Dodgers lack power, and Furcal does not bring that with him, and paying him well for being someone who might excel in getting on base -- a Paul DePodesta kind of guy -- is money the Dodgers won’t have now to add significant wallop to their attack. On the bright side, Hee-Seop Choi will now be coming off the bench.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.