UCLA Ruins

UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell doesn’t show much expression during games, but for much of Saturday night he wore the look of a person standing near a sewage plant.

That’s how poorly the previously unbeaten, seventh-ranked Bruins played against Arizona, which exposed UCLA’s weaknesses in a 52-14 rout before a boisterous homecoming crowd of 55,775.

“This was a wake-up call because we thought we were better than we really were, and on any given Saturday you can come out and lose,” running back Maurice Drew said about the Bruins, who dropped to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Arizona (3-6, 2-4) completely dominated the Bruins, who had specialized in comebacks this season and gave up the first 28 points Saturday.

UCLA suffered its worst defeat since losing at Oregon State, 55-7, in 1999. The Wildcats outgained UCLA, 519 yards to 328, and held the Bruins to 2.4 yards a rushing attempt.

Arizona, the worst ground attack in the Pac-10, ran for 315 yards and even had two backs gain more than 100 yards; Mike Bell had 153 and Gilbert Harris 113.

“We did not play to our capabilities as an offense, defense, special teams and we got outcoached as well,” said Dorrell, whose record dropped to 1-9 after Oct. 31 in three years at UCLA. “It was one of those humble butt-kickings that you’re going to have to take.”

Drew, who entered the game fourth in the nation in all-purpose yards, finished with only 66 total yards, including none on punt returns. Quarterback Drew Olson completed 23 of 38 passes for 232 yards and threw two touchdowns to tight end Marcedes Lewis, but they didn’t matter.

“UCLA did not come ready to play,” Arizona strong safety Michael Johnson said. “Once they got down, you could see they were acting like they were going to come back, but we were ready. We stayed composed and were able to shut down everything they like to do.”

With four double-digit, fourth-quarter, come-from-behind wins this season, the Bruins seemed ready to follow the same script when they gave up three touchdowns in the first quarter.

Behind freshman quarterback Willie Tuitama, who completed 14 of 24 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns, the Wildcats caught UCLA napping early with a mixture of trick plays and big runs.

Freshman wideout Mike Thomas gave Arizona a 7-0 lead when he ran 17 yards for a touchdown on a misdirection play.

Tuitama then fooled the Bruins with a play-action, seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brad Wood and followed with a 48-yard touchdown pass play to Thomas.

Trailing, 21-0, early in the second quarter, UCLA had a chance to gain valuable field position when the Wildcats were stuck with a third down and 12 from their own eight-yard line.

But instead of making a play to get the ball back to the offense to spark a rally, the Bruin defense came up empty. On a draw play, Bell gained 13 yards for a first down and Arizona eventually scored on Harris’ 18-yard run to take a 28-0 lead.

“They converted too many third downs on us,” linebacker Wesley Walker said about Arizona, which was four of five on third downs in the first half. “That was the stat of the game right there.”

On the Bruins’ next possession, Dorrell turned to a hurry-up offense, which had helped UCLA rally to an overtime victory at Stanford last Saturday after trailing by 21 points. The tactic worked for a few plays, but the Bruins failed to score when Olson was stuffed on a fourth-and-inches sneak from the Arizona six.

After Arizona’s first punt, UCLA did score the next time it got the ball when Olson completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Lewis with 2:30 remaining before halftime. But the Bruins then allowed Arizona to drive 61 yards for a Nick Folk 36-yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 31-7 lead at intermission.

“The mood during halftime was optimistic because we’ve been down a few times this year and were able to come back,” Walker said. “We were real anxious to make adjustments and to get back out there.”

Unfortunately for the Bruins, so were the Wildcats, who drove 80 yards in eight plays the first time they had the ball in the second half and stretched their lead to 38-7 on Bell’s eight-yard touchdown run.

After UCLA failed to get a first down, any hopes for a Bruin comeback died when Arizona’s Syndric Steptoe returned a punt 63 yards for a touchdown to make the score 45-7.

“I honestly think that we had people looking for other people to make plays rather than going out there and make plays themselves,” UCLA fullback Michael Pitre said. “Not to point fingers, but we just had too much of that going on. It seemed like people were waiting for someone to do something so they could feed off that.”

The Wildcats scored their final touchdown on defense when Marcus Hollingsworth forced an incomplete lateral attempt to Chris Markey and recovered the ball in the end zone. UCLA finished the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Olson to Lewis.

“This is something that we have to learn from,” Drew said. “We went into somebody’s backyard and got beat. Each game is different and we just didn’t execute like we usually do. It’s now up to us to fix it.”

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KEYS TO THE GAME

Lonnie White’s keys to the game, and how the Bruins measured up:

1. Force Arizona to punt. They did, but not until Arizona had a 28-0 lead. Maurice Drew, the nation’s leader in punt return average, was never a factor.

2. Frustrate the freshman. Did not happen. Wildcat freshman quarterback Willie Tuitama passed for 204 yards and two touchdowns.

3. Wear down Arizona. Did not happen. The Bruins outscored Arizona, 7-0, in the fourth quarter but trailed, 52-7, after three quarters.