UCLA Measures Up Against Itself

Before the Bruins can do the things they want to do, they must prove they can handle the things they have to do.

They sure looked like the masters of their domain by beating Rice, 63-21, Saturday night. This is how the big boys do it. Heavily favored, at home, game decided by the midway point of the second quarter, 578 yards of total offense.

Recent editions of the Bruins couldn’t always be counted on to deliver the as-expected results. That’s why this game shouldn’t be measured against the Owls but against the Bruins’ own recent history. It goes down as the most points scored by a Karl Dorrell-coached team, and the largest margin of victory.

In winning their first two games, UCLA has outscored its opponents by a combined 63 points. The Bruins outscored their opponents by a total 84 points in six victories last season.

While preparing for Rice, Dorrell didn’t quite know what type of offensive attack to expect from Rice (a 3-8 team last year) and wasn’t sure what to make of the Owls. Not much, as it turned out. There used to be a coach on the UCLA campus who emphasized preparing the team regardless of the opponent, that an optimal performance would suffice no matter what the other team did. (I’d refer to the coach by name, but given the sensitivity over the use of his name right now, I’m not sure I have legal clearance to do so).

Drew Olson is finally looking assertive and comfortable. He’s finding a variety of receivers. He completed passes to eight receivers in less than three quarters, finishing with 18 completions on 25 attempts, 296 yards and three touchdowns. It could be that one of the hidden highlights for the Bruins this season was the injury to Ben Olson that assured Drew Olson wouldn’t have to look to the sidelines after every mistake and wonder whether he would be yanked.

Tailback Maurice Drew has established himself as a game-changing threat. He had a 66-yard punt return Saturday night, on the heels of his two big touchdown plays in the opener.

This game won’t have the same impact around the nation as, say Notre Dame’s victory at Michigan or Texas’ defeat of Ohio State in their meeting in Columbus. It’ll mean the world to a certain practice field in Westwood.

The players now have the confidence that they have something that’s working. The coaches can find just enough shortcomings to keep folks paying attention in film sessions.

The Bruins need to work on their containment. Once Rice players popped outside, they had a national park’s worth of space around them.

And with Oklahoma coming to the Rose Bowl next Saturday, the emphasis all week will be defending the run. Just more than a week ago, TCU showed the Sooners can be defeated if you put the game in the hands of their quarterbacks and concentrate on stopping running back Adrian Peterson. Saturday, Tulsa showed how difficult that strategy can be to implement. Peterson broke loose for 220 rushing yards and three touchdowns, single-handedly outscoring Tulsa in Oklahoma’s 31-15 win.

Dorrell said during the week that the one thing he wanted to see from his team was continuity: “Offensively and defensively, we did some we did some great things in the [San Diego State] game and made some big, explosive plays. I want to see if we can sustain that longer and play harder for 60 minutes instead of 42 minutes.”

The one thing I’m still waiting to see the Bruins do with continuity is get the ball to Marcedes Lewis. He’s the most athletic player on the team, a matchup nightmare for opponents, and yet sometimes the Bruins act as if he’s their last option. It’s hard to believe he only had 32 receptions last year -- fewer than three per game -- especially because seven of his catches were touchdowns.

It looked like he was off to better things this year with career highs of seven catches for 131 yards against San Diego State.

“He had a great game in the first game,” Dorrell said. “Do we anticipate him having that type of game every game? I don’t think so. But we would like to keep him involved and for him to be a focal point in our passing attack.”

He was neither in the first half. Dorrell said he’d like to see Lewis get five receptions per game, but at Saturday’s rate that would mean he’d have to catch every ball thrown his way.

It took 13 plays before he got his hands on the ball, making an acrobatic grab of a pass at the back of the end zone but landing with his foot out of bounds. He didn’t get his first reception until 3:47 remained in the half. He finished with two catches for 27 yards.

On this night it didn’t matter, because just about everything else the Bruins tried offensively worked.

The Trojans don’t come to the Rose Bowl this year, so the UCLA fans made do with the closest thing they could find. When a cardinal-and-gold-wearing Pee Wee team took the field at halftime the fans booed lustily. And they cheered when a team of mini-Bruins from Baldwin Hills broke off a few long touchdown runs, one of which was punctuated by a somersault into the end zone and celebrated with a back flip.

It didn’t matter if it was against a feeble Rice team or a group of tiny Trojans, seeing players in UCLA uniforms scoring touchdowns with ease was a welcome sight in these parts.

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