Taylor, Cowan Seeking a Turnaround

For a senior wide receiver who has waited four years to be a go-to target in UCLA’s offense, Junior Taylor has taken his zero-catch performance in UCLA’s 44-21 victory over San Diego State in stride.

“If they need me to block, I’ll block. If they need to throw to me, I’m ready for that,” said Taylor, who finished second on the team in receptions with 32 for 463 yards last season. “Of course, it’s a little disheartening to not catch a ball in a game. But I know things will flip around.”

With senior tight end Marcedes Lewis, who had seven catches for 131 yards against the Aztecs, finally having emerged as the driving force in the Bruin passing game, Taylor and fellow starting wideout Joe Cowan, did not get too many chances in the opener.

Taylor had two passes thrown his way, and another play wiped out because of a Bruin penalty. Cowan missed his only opportunity when he let a Drew Olson sideline pass go through his hands inside the San Diego State 10-yard line.

“We had a couple of opportunities, but we didn’t get anything done with it; that’s the disappointing part,” offensive coordinator Tom Cable said.

“We just need to make the plays we had chances on. If we catch those, then we are saying that we had good production, good balance. We didn’t do that. So we are concerned about that because that has to change.”

Cowan, who caught 13 passes for 228 yards as a sophomore last season, said that after he dropped that second-quarter pass, he tried not to think about it the rest of the game.

“Aside from [the drop], I feel that I did good in my first game,” Cowan said. “I got into a lot of special teams, which is something that I didn’t do too much last year. I also hit all my assignments and did not make any mental mistakes.”

But Taylor and Cowan each acknowledged that most would judge them on their number of receptions.

“If you look back at the game, it was a funny-type game in that we only threw 15 passes and on a lot of them, I knew that I wasn’t getting the ball,” Taylor said. “But I take pride in blocking.

“We were able to run the ball my way and I made a couple of good blocks.... It’s just that some people don’t notice those things. They look in the stats, and it doesn’t say, Taylor, two good blocks that led to touchdowns.”

Against Rice on Saturday, Cable says he expects the Bruin receivers to get more work, especially after Lewis’ big game.

“We’re going to work to get the ball to Marcedes and they have to understand that they have to take advantage and make those plays,” Cable said. “It’s like what Marcedes had to go through two years ago. Now, the shoe is on the other foot.... That’s football, when your opportunity is there, you have to be ready.”

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Redshirt freshman quarterback Ben Olson, who suffered a small bone fracture in his throwing hand two weeks ago, participated in a few drills and threw short passes Tuesday. Sophomore wide receiver Marcus Everett, sidelined recently because of a shoulder injury, participated in limited drills and is questionable for Saturday.