Wounded Ducks no match for Bruins

It didn’t matter that the game was safely in hand.

Didn’t matter that the other team was hobbled by injuries, relegated to its fourth-string quarterback.

As the clock ticked down on UCLA’s 16-0 victory over Oregon at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, the Bruins still had their starting defense on the field.

Players still swarmed to the ball on running plays. Still pumped their fists with each Oregon pass that fell incomplete.

After a long, tough season, the defense wanted a shutout.

“We wanted it bad,” safety Dennis Keyes said. “To play the way we played the whole game, we didn’t want to let them score at the end.”

Put aside, for a moment, that Oregon was missing key starters on offense, including Heisman Trophy candidate Dennis Dixon at quarterback.

This was the first time in more than two decades, a span of 267 games, that the Ducks were shut out. UCLA held them to 148 yards and forced four turnovers.

“Give credit to their defense,” said Justin Roper, one of several Ducks who lined up at quarterback over the course of the afternoon. “We couldn’t make plays.”

UCLA entered the game guessing at how Oregon might try to compensate for losing Dixon, who suffered a season-ending knee injury a week ago. The first priority was to limit Oregon’s ground game with running back Jonathan Stewart in the spread offense.

“We wanted to make sure we didn’t give them any big runs,” Coach Karl Dorrell said. “We wanted their quarterback to make plays for them.”

There was also a possibility that Oregon might try such tactics as rotating quarterbacks and snapping the ball directly to running back Andre Crenshaw on option plays.

It was like portioning Dixon’s run-pass-option offense to different players. Fairly early, UCLA could predict the play depending on who lined up in the backfield.

“Once we realized that, we talked on the sideline,” linebacker Christian Taylor said. “And we adjusted our calls.”

That’s when it got fun.

The defensive line concentrated on getting to the quarterback and knocked starter Brady Leaf out of the game, forcing Oregon to use two freshmen, Roper and Cody Kempt.

At one point, Leaf let a snap glance through his hands, then failed to grab the loose ball. UCLA recovered, which led to the Bruins’ first field goal.

“They were really antsy back there in the pocket,” defensive end Bruce Davis said. “There was confusion.”

The secondary noticed this and predicted more blunders to come.

Cornerback Alterraun Verner intercepted a Kempt pass in the first half. Late in the third quarter, Keyes had deep help on bracket coverage, which allowed him to jump a sideline pattern for another interception.

“It was really big for us to come out and fly around,” he said.

“We knew we could force them into making some errors that the normal starting quarterback wouldn’t make.”

By the time cornerback Trey Brown intercepted a Roper pass in the fourth quarter, he and his teammates had a chance to close the deal.

It didn’t matter that this Oregon team was a shadow of its previous self. For a defense that was supposed to dominate this fall but ranks fourth in the Pac-10, the shutout felt good.

“We’ve had a couple ups and downs this season,” Brown said. “A lot of us defensive guys wanted to go out there and put it all together.”

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david.wharton@latimes.com