At Least One Part of Defense Excels

UCLA leads the Pacific 10 Conference in pass defense, giving up an average of 187 yards a game -- a statistic clouded in part because opponents have enjoyed plenty of success running the ball.

However, the Bruins would not be 6-0 and ranked No. 8 in the nation, and have three consecutive come-from-behind victories, were it not for some solid play from the secondary.

“They certainly turned it up a notch late in the game,” Washington State quarterback Jason Brink said after UCLA’s 44-41 win on Saturday.

To fortify the run defense, the Bruins have played more man coverage in the secondary, and defensive coordinator Larry Kerr has not been shy about using multiple defensive backs around senior strong safety Jarrad Page.

Trey Brown and Marcus Cassel start at cornerback, but they share time with Rodney Van and Byron Velega. The same goes at free safety with Dennis Keyes, who shared time with Eric McNeal against Washington State.

“For some reason guys were tentative and missing tackles,” Kerr said of a Bruin defense that gave up 28 points and 362 yards in the first half. “When we’re good we’re good, and when we’re bad we’re bad. There’s no in between.”

The Bruins’ have had more success using basic but aggressive schemes. Those tactics can be effective, but they are also dangerous because of the pressure they put on defensive backs.

“We’re better when we play physical against receivers and make the quarterback get [passes] in [tight openings],” said Brown, who leads the team in pass breakups with four and has one of UCLA’s three interceptions.

The glue to the secondary is Page, whose 25 tackles include six for 23 yards in losses.

Page said he likes to see the Bruin defense under the gun as it was after giving up 38 points in three quarters to Washington State.

“There’s nothing that anyone did on defense that surprised me when we stopped them,” Page said. “ ... I expected that type of response just from what we’ve done in previous weeks.”

In the fourth quarter of comeback wins over California and Washington State, UCLA gave up 26 passing yards in each game.

Brown said that the Bruins’ versatility and depth at cornerback have been pluses.

“We have a lot of great corners, and we have to be able to play both zone and man,” he said. “In the man scheme, you have to be able to play off and press to give the receiver different looks. That’s what we’re able to do. We’re playing a lot more man coverage than we did a year ago.”

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Maurice Drew leads the nation in punt returns with a 30.7-yard average, but he did not return any last week. Washington State kicked away from him.

However, that only partially slowed him. Drew has accounted for 1,049 all-purpose yards, a 174.8-yard average, and has scored a career-best 14 touchdowns. In each of UCLA’s last three comeback wins, Drew has the winning touchdown.

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Coach Karl Dorrell on UCLA’s being No. 9 in the first bowl championship series standings: “We haven’t really played to our potential for 60 minutes. There’s still a lot of work to improve on. The exciting thing is that potentially, we can be so much better than what we are ... imagine if we put all of those things together consistently over the course of a football game.”