Bruins Evolve in Game to Beat a Better Team

This is working. It’s undeniable now.

If you had any remaining doubts about the Bruins, all you had to do Saturday night was look at the Rose Bowl scoreboard that read “UCLA 47, California 40” and listen to the ecstatic crowd of more than 84,000 raining noise on the jubilant players, then feel the buzz pulsing throughout the locker room.

Or you could just ask Cal running back Justin Forsett.

“They’re a good team,” Forsett said. “Good team. They’ve got good offense, good defense, they’re aggressive. Good team.”

That’s three times “good team” plus five victories minus zero defeats, for you number crunchers. Perhaps that doesn’t equate to a great team, but this comeback victory over the nation’s 10th-ranked team does give validity to the record and credibility to Coach Karl Dorrell.

In one night we witnessed this team grow and learn faster than the creatures in the “Alien” movies. And we saw a breakthrough moment for the coach, who won over the skeptics with a bold fake punt call in the fourth quarter.

The Bruins beat a better team, a team with a strong running game, creative play-calling and a stout defense -- even if it’s a team with an inconsistent quarterback.

The Bruin won on a night their own quarterback wasn’t at his best and their defense was pounded for 330 rushing yards.

You might as well pack skepticism in a trunk and just believe -- because they sure do. That’s what kept them going even though they faced double-digit deficits three times during the course of this game, including a 40-28 hole in the fourth quarter.

“We’re going to face teams that are better than us, as far as on paper,” UCLA’s Justin London said. “But nothing replaces heart -- and we’ve got lots of heart.”

I’ve never seen a team evolve so much in the course of one game. Two and a half minutes after it started, the Bruins were down, 14-0, and looked like they couldn’t compete with Cal. Then they bounced back to tie the score by the first minute of the second quarter and looked ready to put up a fight -- for a while. Then they gave themselves a chance, which was really all we could expect out of them, right?

The Bruins don’t think in those terms anymore. After they lost a close game to USC last year, Dorrell said it was “fun” and London said, “I think that showed people something.” You wouldn’t have heard any Bruins saying such things if UCLA had lost this one.

Which is why, even a week later, the Bruins still aren’t apologizing for barely scraping by lowly Washington in a game the Bruins trailed until they put together a 73-yard drive to go ahead in the final 68 seconds.

“The win we had the week before helped us win today,” Dorrell said, with a touch of defiance in his voice.

So when UCLA got the ball with 2:30 remaining and a five-point deficit, it didn’t faze them.

“I think we were all relaxed and confident,” quarterback Drew Olson said. “We knew we’ve done it before, so why not do it again?”

They took the lead on a swing pass to Maurice Drew, who was about 20 yards from the end zone but decided “I have to score.”

It was almost impossible to keep him out of the end zone on a night he scored five touchdowns. He sprinted through the entire Bear punt team for a 81-yard touchdown return in the third quarter, and bowled over California safety Harrison Smith at the goal line in the first half.

He even beat the clock for the final touchdown after a Trey Brown interception all but sealed the victory.

Not only do the Bruins matter in the Pacific 10 and nationally again, they matter in their hometown. This is a fun team that has scored at least 40 points in four games, and Drew is as exciting to watch as anyone in the country.

What was the advice in “Gladiator”? You’ve got to win the crowd. This one fell in love with the Bruins. “Our fans, they were great tonight,” Olson said. “It was so awesome to see that Rose Bowl going off.”

Dorrell got in the good graces with his call in the fourth quarter. The Bruins faced fourth-and-two at their own 40 with 9:16 remaining. Dorrell sent the punt team out, and the fans booed. Then Michael Pitre took the snap, handed off to Jarrad Page, and Page took off 38 yards, with a 10-yard personal foul penalty tacked on at the end. That led to a quarterback sneak that brought the Bruins within five points.

“You have to make yourself looking like you weren’t thinking about it all along,” Dorrell said. “That’s how the process works. As a matter of fact it worked pretty well, because our fans were booing.”

So could it be that the expressionless, conservative Karl we’ve seen the last two years was all a set-up?

Well, this is real: This team is growing up. And Dorrell clearly feels more connected to this group than he was to the team he inherited three years ago.

“Are we perfect? No,” Dorrell said. “We know we have a lot to improve. But I think we’re perfect with our attitude. I like our attitude. I like how we battle. And I like how we compete. There’s guys who try to do the right things. Yeah, we’ll stumble. But we’ll compete.”

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.