Bruins try to look ahead

Call it the blizzard of Westwood. One woeful game and the UCLA football team learned that expectations also come with consequences that can snowball.

The sports talk show radio squawkers were on the attack. The Internet jockeys were chirping.

Coach Karl Dorrell mentioned being “embarrassed” four times, and said there would be no “panic” three times in a news conference, then twice more in a one-on-one interview.

The players held their own meeting to clear the air and refocus.

And this is the first-place team in Pacific 10 Conference.

Of course, it would also be the second-place team in the Mountain West Conference -- Air Force is 2-0 in that conference, the Bruins would be 1-1.

The raucous celebration in Salt Lake City over Utah’s 44-6 drubbing of UCLA had yet to quiet down, and questions about where the Bruins were headed were already being asked.

Still, Dorrell said, “there is no panic, nobody is panicking right now. But that loss stung. Now it’s time to regroup and not let that type of thing happen again.”

This is hardly the best way to reenter Pac-10 play, especially with the only conference gimme, Stanford, already in the rear-view mirror.

The Bruins, who trounced the Cardinal in the season opener and sit atop the standings (no one else has played a conference game), face Washington on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Yet, Dorrell was still answering many questions about the Utah game Monday afternoon.

“We’re not going to make this a state-of-the-program kind of thing,” Dorrell said. “It is something we want to address. It is something we have urgency about getting better in a lot respects.”

It is also something that is going to linger, no matter how much the Bruins, and Dorrell, want it to fade away.

“I’ve lived through this game Saturday, Sunday and Monday, this game is over with to me. I’m ready to get to Washington,” Dorrell said.

The players meeting was led by defensive end Bruce Davis and linebacker Christian Taylor.

“They gave topics that we had to talk about it,” senior wide receiver Brandon Breazell said. “Guys touched on a lot of points, the point being we’ve got to believe in one another. Everyone has the same goal on this team, but you have something else going for you too. Like I have a son, I work for him. I put his name on my wristband before each game. But to work for him, I have to work for the team.”

Breazell said that “during the week, we’ve got to be responsible, like no partying,” though Breazell said that hasn’t been a problem. But the underlying message, Breazell said, was, “We have to trust in each other.”

Senior strong safety Chris Horton said the meeting was not a finger-pointing session -- which considering the Bruins’ play Saturday could have made for a long night -- but one of positive reinforcement.

“This isn’t the end of our season,” Horton said. “Yeah, we’re hurt and we’re all disappointed. We feel bad, but there are a number of games left in the season and we have a lot to play for.”

Dorrell could attest to that point.

The Bruins were 0-3-1 after losing to Brigham Young in 1983, when Dorrell was a sophomore receiver. They won seven of their last eight games to take the conference title and the Rose Bowl.

“A lot of us stood up [after the fourth game],” Dorrell said. “That’s what teams do. When you have a difficult situation going, you find a way to overcome.”

Dorrell also said, “We’ve been through some ups and downs; I’ve been through some ups and downs for four years. It’s not like I haven’t been in this situation before. We’ll find a way to get out of this and play great football beginning this week.”

But the hit-and-miss rides that the UCLA program has taken have given fuel to critics who think the program is meandering. That, though, is outside chatter, as far as the players are concerned.

“We’re not going to let this game be the determining factor of our season,” Horton said.

So far, it is.

The Bruins were so bad in so many areas Saturday that they went from 11th in the Associated Press poll to unranked.

“[The players] are embarrassed, we’re all embarrassed. We didn’t play to our potential and that’s unfortunate.” Dorrell said

What that potential is has undergone reassessment from the outside.

Yet the players remain committed to their goals.

“We’re seniors, we want to win a national championship,” Breazell said. “That can still be possible, but we’ve got to go in and win every game.

“We’re still undefeated in the Pac-10, that’s our goal, the Pac-10 championship.”

The national title talk, Dorrell said, was because “our players get a little bit overzealous about their thoughts and ambitions . . . and you want them to be ambitious.”

The Utah loss “just proves that we’re not quite as good a team as most people thought that we were. I thought we were a good Pac-10 team. I thought we were a good, challenging Pac-10 team, that has a chance to win the conference.”

Whether that seems to be downsizing is open to interpretation.

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chris.foster@latimes.com