Bruin Defense Is a Late Learner

The message was exactly what UCLA’s defensive players expected to hear. The messenger couldn’t have been more startling.

Offensive coordinator Tom Cable marched into the Bruin locker room at halftime Saturday afternoon at Martin Stadium and verbally jostled a defense that had yielded 362 yards and 28 points to Washington State in 30 excruciating minutes.

“What happened on the field in the first half was unacceptable,” Cable would later tell reporters. “It’s hard to run the football against them in practice, and to see that, I just knew those kids could do more.... It was just my emotions. I just had to get that out.”

Defensive coordinator Larry Kerr also couldn’t understand what he had just witnessed, especially because coaches all week had stressed starting faster after the Bruins needed fourth-quarter rallies to beat Washington and California.

“I didn’t look at the yardage,” Kerr said. “I looked at us not making plays and I thought, ‘When are we going to start making plays?’ ”

Kerr wouldn’t have to wait long. After allowing 10 more points in the third quarter, UCLA’s defense applied a vise-like grip during another spectacular fourth. The Bruins held the Cougars to 47 yards and forced three three-and-out possessions, providing the offense with a major assist during No. 12 UCLA’s 44-41 overtime victory.

The Bruins have now allowed three points combined in the fourth quarter the last three weeks after giving up 92 points in the previous three quarters. What will make this defense start playing well early?

“That’s one of those coaching mysteries we’re going to research,” Bruin Coach Karl Dorrell said. “We do find a way to shut them down, we’re just going to work to do it earlier.”

Said defensive end Justin Hickman: “It’s something I can’t explain. The biggest thing was wrapping them up because we were missing too many tackles in the first half.”

Washington State tailback Jerome Harrison was also finding plenty of holes, averaging 9.6 yards a carry en route to 182 first-half yards. The Cougars scored touchdowns on four of their first six possessions, with Harrison on track to single-handedly ruin the Bruins.

UCLA adjusted its defensive scheme at halftime, Kerr said, so the linebackers on Harrison tried to make him run sideline to sideline instead of directly up the field. Harrison still found some success in the third quarter, rushing for 68 yards in 10 carries.

With Washington State leading, 38-28, when it got the ball back early in the fourth quarter, all the Cougars needed were a couple of first downs to keep the clock moving. They would get none until after UCLA had tied the score at 38-38 with 44 seconds left.

The Bruins held Harrison to five yards in four carries in the fourth quarter. UCLA’s defense stiffened again in overtime, limiting the Cougars to five yards before they kicked a 37-yard field goal.

“The way we played at the end and in the fourth quarter was the best I’ve seen,” safety Jarrad Page said. “It was great to be a part of that.”

The most surprising contributor was Cable. Even though Hickman said he “was just telling us things we already knew,” it might have helped to hear it from a different perspective.

“I think they were stunned by what happened in the first half,” Cable said. “I just knew they were capable of more, and the second half proved it.”