Relatively speaking, UCLA is in big trouble

UCLA’s once-promising season may not have completely collapsed Saturday at the Rose Bowl, but even the Bruins’ best spin doctors will have a difficult time finding something positive out of a 37-15 loss to Washington State.

“A lot of teams in our position would start to point the finger, split up and break apart,” UCLA defensive end Bruce Davis said afterward. “I just want to make sure that we don’t do that and I know we’re not. ... We’re a family and everyone’s family has hard times and the only way you get through them is to stick together.”

UCLA lost its third consecutive game, dropping to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in Pacific 10 Conference play with a second half of uninspired football in a game it needed to win.

Meanwhile, the Cougars (6-3, 4-2) executed down the stretch like a team going someplace.

Washington State piled up 515 total yards against the top-ranked defense in the Pac-10 as quarterback Alex Brink passed for 405 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cougars, who ended UCLA’s 10-game home winning streak, dominated after trailing, 15-14, at halftime. Over the final two quarters, Washington State outscored the Bruins, 23-0, and outgained them, 220-120. At the end, the Cougars had run 74 plays to UCLA’s 61 and held an edge in time of possession, 36 minutes and 59 seconds to 23:01.

“I can’t speak on those guys, but I definitely know that we wanted it,” Washington State wide receiver Jason Hill said. “All of our hard work is starting to pay off and it showed today.”

Before Saturday, UCLA’s biggest problem on offense was that the Bruins settled for too many field goals instead of touchdowns. But at least UCLA won those games. Against Washington State, the Bruins did little after a decent first half.

With sophomore quarterback Patrick Cowan making his first home start, the Bruins made too many mistakes, especially when they had opportunities to keep drives alive. UCLA was two for 12 on third-down conversions.

“We need a lot more hard work, I know that,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “We have to get back to work and deal with all of the criticism and all the things that happened.”

Cowan, who completed 17 of 37 passes for 252 yards, hooked up with Junior Taylor for a second-quarter touchdown pass that was the quarterback’s only highlight of the game.

“It wasn’t one of his better performances, that’s for sure,” Dorrell said of Cowan, who was in his fourth game replacing injured starter Ben Olson. “It wasn’t just him -- there were a lot of circumstances that we didn’t quite have the rhythm that we should have.”

The day did not start off poorly for the Bruins. Moments before kickoff, Oregon State’s upset over USC was announced to the Rose Bowl crowd and the news might have inspired UCLA to jump out to an early lead.

Cowan’s 24-yard completion to Marcus Everett helped set up a 37-yard field goal by Justin Medlock that put the Bruins up, 3-0.

The next time they had the ball, the Bruins again had to settle for a field goal when tight end Logan Paulsen had a third-down catch reversed after an official’s review. Medlock’s field goal from 28 yards put the Bruins ahead, 6-0.

Washington State, which defeated Oregon last week, got its offense flowing in the second quarter when Brink started to look for tight ends Jed Collins and Cody Boyd. They combined to make eight catches for 154 yards in the game.

The Cougars took their first lead, 7-6, when Brink rolled out and completed a six-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Gibson, who beat cornerback Rodney Van in the left corner of the end zone.

For Van and the Bruins’ secondary, that was a sign of more to come.

“We definitely took advantage of their corners,” said Hill, who caught five passes for a game-high 115 yards and a touchdown. “No matter what steps they took, we capitalized on it. We wanted to go after both corners.”

The next time Washington State had the ball, Brink led his team 98 yards in seven plays and capped the drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Hill, who also beat Van.

Trailing, 14-6, UCLA finished the half strong. Freshman running back Chane Moline did most of the hard work to set up Medlock’s third field goal -- from 38 yards -- to cut the Cougars’ lead to five points.

UCLA cornerback Trey Brown then gave the Bruins the break they were looking for when he picked off a pass intended for Michael Bumpus at the Bruins’ 43. Cowan needed only five plays to produce UCLA’s first touchdown with a 36-yard completion to Taylor that gave the Bruins a 15-14 lead. UCLA’s two-point conversion pass failed.

But the second half was all Cougars. Brink passed 17 yards to Gibson for a touchdown to give Washington State a 20-15 lead.

Then, in a turning point, on a fourth-and-one play from midfield, Cowan’s pass intended for fullback Michael Pitre was knocked away.

Washington State followed with a 31-yard field goal from backup kicker Romeen Abdollmohammadi to extend its lead to 23-15 late in the third quarter.

With Brink completing key passes for first downs, the Cougars finished the scoring with two fourth-quarter touchdown runs by DeMaundray Woolridge.

lonnie.white@latimes.com