Defense Responds in the Crunch

Jarrad Page had just sent the Rose Bowl crowd into a frenzy by racing deep into California territory with a fake punt midway through the fourth quarter Saturday night when UCLA defensive coordinator Larry Kerr gathered his players on the sideline.

Quarterback Drew Olson’s one-yard touchdown run would draw the Bruins to within five points, but a Golden Bear offense that had piled up 507 yards and scored on its last three possessions was getting the ball back.

“I just told them, ‘Now we have to stop them,’ ” Kerr said. “The game was on us then. You have to step up, and this was the time to do it.”

In the huddle, defensive end Justin Hickman said, nothing needed to be said.

“They hadn’t stopped our offense,” Hickman said, “and we knew if we could get them the ball, good things would happen.”

Good things, indeed. After Cal picked up two first downs, the defense stiffened and the Golden Bears were forced to punt.

Olson then engineered the winning drive, moving UCLA 75 yards for the go-ahead score.

The Bruin defense got the final stop it needed when cornerback Trey Brown intercepted a Joe Ayoob pass with 1 minute 1 second left, sealing No. 20 UCLA’s 47-40 victory over the 10th-ranked Golden Bears.

“We just knew we had to go out and get a stop and [Ayoob] just threw it to him, what can I say?” linebacker Justin London said. “We just never gave up, man. We gave up about 1,000 yards tonight, but we held them off.”

It wasn’t easy -- or pretty.

With Cal clinging to a 40-35 lead, the Golden Bears took over at their 10-yard line with just over seven minutes left. Running back Marshawn Lynch, who had broken several long runs, gained 20 yards on first down and then had another big gain only to have it wiped out by a holding call.

After Justin Forsett was stopped for a one-yard loss and Ayoob dodged several would-be tacklers for a 16-yard gain, Cal faced a third-and-two situation at its 38. Lynch got the call and wound up inches short of a first down, but Ayoob picked it up on a sneak on the next play.

That’s when UCLA made the plays it had to, eventually holding the Bears on a third-and-three situation and forcing them to punt.

Olson quickly drove the Bruins downfield for a touchdown on a 28-yard pass to Maurice Drew, but Cal got the ball back at its 20 with 1:35 left to erase a 41-40 deficit.

On first down, the Bears were called for pass interference. And on the next play, Brown, who earlier had watched a potential interception bounce off his chest, stepped in front of Ayoob’s pass and returned it 16 yards to the Cal seven.

“I was able to see where he wanted to go with the ball and make a play,” Brown said. “We had to make some big plays to give the offense a chance to go down and score, and that’s what we did.”

Given the ball with 1:01 left, the Bruin offense converted on the final play when Drew scored from two yards to set the final margin.

“We weren’t particularly happy about the way we played,” free safety Dennis Keyes said, “but we knew what was at stake and just made the plays when we had to.”

*

UCLA sophomore guard Chris Joseph suffered a twisted left knee in the first half and will have an MRI exam today. Joseph was replaced by senior Robert Cleary....Defensive tackle Brigham Harwell suffered a sprained right ankle in the first quarter and did not return. X-rays were negative.