Going into tonight's game we were a little worried.  This was the kind of game we have seen Bruin teams under previous regimes drop time after time.

This is kind of game we have seen Bruins come out in previous years and choke away, taking their opponents lightly, showing any kind of focus or killer instincts.

Instead tonight the Bruins came out with a purpose and took care of business. They started a little out of sync on offense and were having trouble tackling early in the game on defense. But they settled down and under Craft's leadership methodically sliced up the Cougars with help from Austin, Bell, Embree, Moline and Moya:

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Lewis (via ESPN)

Bruins take apart the Cougars by a score of 28-3 (boxscore). The final score was not indicative of how Bruins controlled the game as Cougars piled on a TD in garbage time and Bruins had CForce mopping late in the fourth quarter.

No doubt Bruins took a step forward tonight but still there is lot of room for improvement as they head into Oregon for a very difficult road game. We will have more thoughts on the game tomorrow and early next week.

For now ... enjoy a steady Bruin win featured by an efficient and enjoyable offensive performance we haven't seen in years. Let's hope the Bruins build on it to improve some more this upcoming game week ...methodically of course.

Oh and the Blue Crew just took care of the Cubbies at the Chavez Ravine officially making this a True Blue weekend in LA.

Thread it up in our post game victory thread.

GO BRUINS.

Off we go.

Bruins need a win … badly. As do the Cougars who are coming into the Rose Bowl looking at UCLA as perhaps their only chance at a victory in their long season. Our recent history against the Cougars have been nothing short of nightmarish. As we have discussed all week, Paul Wulff’s team will have a shot in pulling off what some will consider as an upset against the Bruins.

Bruins will need to come out with aggression on both sides of the ball with stellar play from the special teams:

Photo Credit: dathomas9's photostream (flickr)

They will also need to stay focused and disciplined, eliminating the mistakes from previous weeks

The kickoff time is scheduled for 7:15 pm PST on FSN Prime Ticket. As always you can click on the links below under "Related Item" for updated game stats and track the game via UCLA's official site and WWL's game page.

Let’s hope the boys in blue can put it all together.  With that said time to get started with another game thread filled with our passion buckets.

Fire away.

GO BRUINS.

We’ve got a long way till the kickoff and till our Bruins take the field: 

Photo Credit: Jack Rosenfeld

I am sure many of friends are out there on the Rose Bowl living it up, tailgating away on that beautiful golf course. For rest of us (especially those not in the West Coast), we will be taking in number of games leading up to our kickoff around 7:15 pm PST.

Florida @ Arkansas (9:30 am PST), PSU at Purdue (9:00 am PST) Texas @ Colorado (4:00 pm PST), Oregon at Southern Cal (5:00 pm PST), tOSU at Wisconsin (5:00 pm PST) are just some of the games that might keep you entertained. You can keep tab of the scores via WWL.

If you need cram in some Washington State related notes check out out game page here.

If you are watching you can post your thoughts, comments, snap scouting reports (on any of our future opponents) right here in this as a pre-game thread.  We will have the game thread up tonight about half an hour before our kickoff. So fire away.

GO BRUINS.

We will start this game day round up with a little public service annoucement from the UCLA athletics department (avoid the 110 when you are driving to the Rose Bowl):

Fans attending the UCLA-Washington State game at the Rose Bowl are encouraged to arrive at the Rose Bowl early to tailgate, visit the Fan Zone in Area H, which opens at 3:00 pm, and attend the men's water polo game against No. 2 UCLA and No. 7 Long Beach State at 4:00 pm at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.[...]

In addition to the UCLA game, which begins at 7:15 pm, USC is playing at the L.A. Coliseum at 5:00 pm, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are hosting the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium at 7:00 pm. Fans going to the Rose Bowl should avoid the 110 Freeway if possible to avoid the traffic in the downtown area and plan on arriving early.

More details over here.

As for the game, we have discussed all week how tonight presents an opportunity for DeWayne Walker's unit to improve upon the effort from last three weeks.  One of the things we are going to look for is what kind of pressure the D can put on WSU's QB.  Dohn reports on the lack of pressure on opposing QBs so far in this young season:

The Bruins are tied for 102nd (out of 119 teams) in the nation in sacks per game (1.0). Losing all-American defensive end Bruce Davis to the NFL is a major reason for the lack of sacks, but missed assignments are also playing a significant role.

"It's been a lot of guys doing too much, and myself being one of those guys," Bosworth said as the Bruins prepared to host Washington State at the Rose Bowl tonight. "I try to over-think things. I just have to go out there and play football."

Getting pressure on Washington State quarterback Marshall Lobbestael is a goal for UCLA's defense, which not only isn't racking up sacks but is rarely pressuring opposing quarterbacks, who are completing 61.3 percent of their passes and have 12 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

Bosworth and defensive end Tom Blake each have one sack, as does reserve defensive tackle Nate Skaggs and linebacker Akeem Ayers.

"As long as we do our own techniques and handle our own assignments, and speed rush and use hand-to-hand movements and combat, I feel comfortable we're going to get some pressure on the quarterback this week," Bosworth said.

Hopefully Bosworth and all his team-mates will step up tonight and not take their opponents lightly. CRN has been preaching that message all week, while WSU coach Paul Wulff is chomping at this game as an opportunity to take a "step forward" for his beleaguered program. From the Seattle Press Intelligencer:

"We certainly are not in a place to be overlooking anybody," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "Washington State may be looking at us as, 'Finally we get somebody that we can handle.' "

"I think the kids probably believe they can beat 'em," Wulff said. "They should. I think if we have enough competitors, we can do that.

"The thing about this team, and I said it at the beginning of the season: Our team wasn't going to be as good as it could be early on, and it was going to be a season of improvements that we need to make.

"We've played five games. We've had three different starting quarterbacks. We haven't had an offensive line (with the same starters consistently). We've had some kids out on defense.

"We're not a very deep team to begin with, then we've had a lot of issues on top of it. All the combinations kind of went against us. I do believe we can take a step this week."

We are not the only ones who think Bruins can't afford to look pass this Cougars team. Here is Ted Miller from WWL on the possibility of Cougars pulling out a win:

This is Washington State's best chance for a Pac-10 win, at least until the Apple Cup: UCLA should beat the Cougars. The Bruins also should have beaten the Cougars last year, but Washington State won 27-7, a game that became a significant nail in then-Bruins coach Karl Dorrell's coffin. UCLA is prone to distraction. It may look at the schedule and yawn. Moreover, the Rose Bowl is hardly a hostile environment these days, so redshirt freshman quarterback Marshall Lobbestael might not be overwhelmed in his first road start. The Cougars may, in fact, benefit from being on the road, considering they lost by an average of 56 points in their first two conference home games. This might not qualify as an upset alert, but it won't be written very often this season that Washington State actually has a shot to win.

Not sure what else can we do to hammer home the point that Bruins need to prepare for this game like they did for a high profile SEC opponent such as Tennessee. For more on today's game coverage check out the LA Times, the OC Register, and the Press Enterprise. All our games notes can be found here.

Since our game doesn't kick off till 7:15 pm PST, we will have a pre game thread up around 11:30 am PST (which you can use to comment on today's all other actions), which will be followed by our game thread that will go up about half an hour before kickoff. Let's hope our boys take care of business tonight at the Rose Bowl. Enjoy the Game Day.

GO BRUINS.

It's that time of the week again.

I've got the results from Fresno State on a Fan Post here.

I've got to be honest with you -- we're not much better at guessing than the team is at winning. I don't think anyone has gotten three points in a given week yet.

Now, let's turn our attention to the Washington State Cougars.

How bad are the Cougars? Let's put it this way: They're double-digit dogs to a team that's been blown out by BYU and Arizona, got beat pretty good by Fresno State and has dropped three in a row.

That's how bad the Cougars are at the moment.

~~~

John Cougar Mellencamp Crumblin Down Video (via MrsHappyGoLucky)

Washington State sucking is actually sort of nostalgic for us old timers. I can recall a time when Washington State knew their place as one of the conference doormats. That was back when we used to play in New Year's Day bowl games and actually win them. This was back when Rick Neuheisel was throwing passes and Karl Dorrell was catching them.

I can almost picture Neuheisel sitting his his frat house, knocking back some Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve or MIckey's Big Mouth (no doubt delivered by the Duck Blind up on Montana), watching MTV (note to the young folks, MTV used to play music videos -- weird, huh?) , checking out Johnny Cougar and going, "Heh, heh ... I wonder if he's rooting for the Cougars?" ... then cracking up as he and his bros spill beer and pretzels all over a sofa they stole from Dykstra Hall.

~~~

I'm just going to say it: UCLA needs this win. If they lose, well ... it's basketball season. So I'm going to throw optimistic caution to the wind with this week's questions:

1 - How many points will UCLA lead by at halftime?

2 - How many touchdowns will UCLA score on offense in the game?

3 - What will the exact combined attendance be at the Rose Bowl, Dodgers Stadium (where the Cubs will be playing the Dodgers) and the Coliseum (where USC faces Oregon)?

Okay ... that last one was a joke.

3 - Seriously, which game will have the higher attendance, the UCLA-Washington State game at the Rose Bowl or the Dodgers-Cubs game at Dodgers Stadium? (Answer Bruins or Dodgers)

As always, leave your guesses in the subject line of your comment below.

I will continue piling up my notes on Washington State (any of you guys are more than welcome to add on to this in the comments or via Fanposts or Fanshots) before I get to the title of this post. 

So Tuesday night with help from Grady at CougCenter one of the key reasons Cougar fans have been keeping faith in this football season: Marshall Lobbestael. The Wazzu redshirt freshman QB who started the season number at 3 on their depth chart has emerged has emerged as the Cougar’s starter (and possibly the future) after their top 2 QBs went down with injuries in early part of the season. The way Cougar fans are buzzing about this kind of reminds me of the excitement we all experienced around a certain true freshman QB in Westwood more than a decade ago (who also happened to be a red head). Speaking of red, here is a little explanation courtesy of Luke Hallowell from CougFan.com re. why Cougs are calling this kid ‘Ocho Rojo’:

Washington State tight end Tony Thompson, whose dad Jack “The Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson was blessed with the greatest nickname in WSU history, came up Saturday with a catchy new moniker for quarterback Marshall Lobbestael. And by all accounts, the name has swept through the Cougar locker room like wild fire.

Ocho Rojo. That's Spanish for "Eight Red."

And that’s Lobbestael’s new handle, courtesy of Thompson. It’s a takeoff on Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson’s recent announcement that he was changing his name to his jersey number, Ocho Cinco (or 8-5).

Lobbestael, the second-year freshman from Oak Harbor, wears number 8 (ocho). We’re not sure if the rojo (red) refers to his carrot-top hair or jersey color.

I like that story. It’s kind of stuff makes college football so much more fun. Well, Lobbestael struggled a little bit against Oregon following his flashy debut against Portland State. Regardless, Coach Wulff saw lot of positive signs from his young QB’s performance in Cougar’s blowout loss against Oregon:

Wulff talked about Marshall Ocho Rojo. He thought he did a very good job, considering 1) the quality of the opponent in Oregon, one of the quickest, most physical teams he'll see all season; 2) the youth of our offensive line and skill positions; 3) the fact that it was his first start, at home, for homecoming. Add it all up and he did just fine. Had three drives that went well, two for TD passes and one other one that he had Brandon Gibson wide open for a TD but missed him. Wulff also said that he has no doubt that Marshall's game is going to come fast, faster than they expected initially. He's classy, competitive, hates to make mistakes. He's an absolute film guy, all the way, and Wulff said right now he's watching more film than anyone on the roster, coaches included! He is calm, cool, collected, and handles him self extremely well. Wulff has no doubt he will develop into a fine player over the next four years (this is the closest I've heard Wulff "gush" about a player on the roster, so, I think you can read between the lines to understand that Lobbestael is going to be THE GUY for the foreseeable future).

According to reports, in order to gradually integrate this kid up to speed Wulff has taken out no huddle offense. However, they are still going to run the spread offense which has been a total nightmare for Walker over the years (and especially against Washington State) with this promising QB.

For their part while bloggers from Wazzu are not optimistic about a victory on Saturday, they are thinking that Cougs will have a chance against Bruins. Brinkhater at WSU Football Blog thinks the Cougs “could win” or make it “interesting” if certain factors break their way:

While Ocho Rojo showed last Saturday that he really IS the man of the future, I think its a bit much to expect him to light it up in both his second start and first road game. Simply put, guys making their second starts as 18 point dogs rarely fare well. I think such is the case on Saturday--especially since we are still making changes at the tackle position. Look for #8 to make similar mistakes but more BIG PLAYS.

Therefore, while I see a game where we can stay "sort of in it," this is not a game that we will win.

That said, IF the O-Line steps up, and IF we can avoid the TO's that have buried us the last 5 weeks, we could WIN this one (last week, with a similar "stellar scenario" we could only make it interesting).

From the same post Sedihawk offers up the following astute observations re the so called mismatch some are making this game out to be:

But let's look at the full picture here. You think OUR offense is bad? We're at least averaging 19 points per game (yuck). But who is averaging 17 points per game, good for last in the PAC?? UCLA. And while we have sputtered mightily on offense, averaging 322 yards per game, or eighth in the conference.....guess who is LAST in the conference, with a measly 276.8 yards per game?? UCLA.

And UCLA's defense has been touted as being big, fast, physical, the whole deal. But the Bruins are allowing an amazing 37.5 points per game, eighth in the Pac-10. And they are eighth in the Pac-10 in total defense, giving up 415.8 yards per game. That's only 21 yards less per game that our awful WSU defense, if you can believe it. Think about that for a second - all those yards and points we have seen the WSU defense give up so far, and UCLA is only 21 yards less per game? That's a huge shock to me. So they are dealing with a new culture change as well with Slick Rick.

But that's just the stats, and you know they don't always tell the story. Judging a team just four or five games into a brand new regime is, as they say, SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. There is way too much of the season left to go before you can fully peg a team, one way or another, and a hell of a lot can change.

So that's the Bruins. But what about our Cougs? What can we expect?

I think like Brinkhater says, Ocho Rojo will play better. He will make plays and will likely grind out a few drives of note. Brandon Gibson will get his yards and catches, Devin Frischknecht will have a decent day, Jeshua Anderson will turn in a big play or two, and we'll have some things to cling to as the season rolls on. And believe it or not, I do think our defense will play better this week. There will be some adjustments made, again, and a renewed effort to stop the run. Some new faces will be out there, and that will help, but I think we'll see some wrinkles to do everything in our power to stop a running game.

ALL that said, it still won't be enough. If there is one thing we've seen as a general tone this season, it's this - on both sides of the ball, up front, we simply aren't good enough. We've started five different combinations at offensive line, and none of them have proven to be the solution. Even while we had a huge stat game vs. Portland State, we still allowed far too many free shots at the QB's. But the huge concern is how they've been physically overwhelmed vs. BCS opponents on both the offensive and defensive lines. While UCLA's own offensive line has been overwhelmed as well this season, they will still be able.

I wouldn’t get all that upset about the “Slick Rick” name calling from Wazzu fans. Neuheisel after all owns a 5-0 record vs. Cougars, 1-0 at Colorado and 4-0 at Washington. So not a surprise that there is still lingering natural resentment.

Going back to the main point, I will have to admit I am actually worried about this game. This is exactly the kind of game, no matter how hard the coaches drill into their players about not taking the other team lightly, kids come out flat. And given the culture of this program from last 4-5 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if our players come out flat. And that could present dangerous situation for the UCLA team on Saturday night. 

I will end this post with the following note dherman at the Daily Evergreen Sports blog (in his wrap of Wazzus’ blowout loss against Oregon Ducks):

The allure of sports comes down in large part to the “any given day” phenomenon. The best example is golf, where on any given day, you can play as well as Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus. You probably won’t shoot 10 birdies in a round, but the chance is still there. For fans, the thought in the back of your head is that on any given day, your team might rise up. On a balmy Autumn night in Autzen, your team might be the ones to knock off the No. 1 team in the country. So you don’t give up on your team, no matter how badly you’re losing. It’s why you find those students willing to brave the cold, hard concrete out in front of the stadium gate from the wee hours of the morning. It’s why, despite the fact the Cougars are down by almost 50 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the student section is almost half full.

Well if the Bruins do not focus this week and go into this game with same attitude we have seen from them time and again during this past decade littered with losses against games we had no business losing, you can bet it will be the Cougars going back to Pullman on an emotional high and possibly a full student section for their next home game.

Here is a plea to our players for giving the same kind of effort, hustle and focus this week they gave during the game week leading up to Tennessee and 13-9. One of the big reasons UCLA brought back Rick Neuheisel (and he and his staff knows this) is to create a culture in which the team is not satisfied with pulling of victories on any given Saturday. One of the main reasons Neuheisel is here is to establish a winning mentality in which the teams comes in totally prepared and locked in with focus every Saturday no matter what opponent they are taking on.

Well I know this year we are expecting a very tough season. A long one. However, this weekend presents an opportunity for our team to lay down its marker, if they truly want to prove that they are working to shed the mentality of being content with a mediocre program they have been for almost a decade.  If they can bring it this Saturday night at the Rose Bowl, it will be a huge boost to CRN’s ongoing effort to reestablish a winning culture in Westwood, which he got use to as Rose Bowl winning QB.

GO BRUINS.

Let’s keep building our files Cougars with an important note from Nuss at CougCenter. In my last post I had assumed that Brandon Gibson and Mike Lobbestael had piled up some of their stats against Portland State (Cougars’ only victory this season). That is not the case:

Gibson had 10 catches against Oregon, most of them when the game was still reasonably close (of course, right now, being down by only two or three TDs counts as "reasonably close" at the moment). Lobbestael, meanwhile, was 14-of-21 with no picks and a TD after the Cougs had crawled within 21-7. Only when the game truly got way, way out of hand and Lobbestael had to throw on every down did he start to pile up the incompletions and interceptions.

Both are the real deal, and this offense has the opportunity to do some things if the defense can ever piece together a reasonable effort against a BCS opponent. That hasn’t happened since the first game, which is looking more and more like an anomaly that was due to a poor effort from Oklahoma State.

Well the Cougars have had nightmarish outings (score wise) against BCS opponents since their first game of the season. But that doesn’t mean Neuheisel’s team has the luxury to look past them in this game week. Just like Westwood, up in Pullman, a new head football coach is chipping away at a culture change:

"We're playing an inexperienced, young quarterback and we have to keep him settled down," Wulff said. "We need to give him enough time to make sure he can think."

Quarterback is just one area where Wulff is trying to hold the line.

"The thing is, the program has hit hard times," Wulff said. "It's going to build, but the tough part is dealing with where we're at right now. It's not an X-and-O thing, it's not a coaching thing, it's not individual people. It's an overall culture that went sideways."

As he is preaching about the culture change, you can bet Wulff is going to drill into his team’s mindset this week how UCLA presents their best opportunity to pick up their first victory against a BCS team this season. I would expect that his defense will be fired up to face a UCLA team which is still finding its way on offense.

One of the key guys Craft and col will have to watch out for is LB Greg Trent. From the notes of Kevin Pearson:

LB GREG TRENT (5-11, 220, Sr.): Trent leads the Cougars' porous defense with 33 tackles, including a team-high four for a loss. He also has a sack and an interception from his starting linebacker spot.

Hopefully the OL will continue its gelling process from last two outings and build on the rushing performance of last weekend.

Also, this will be a key game for our special teams unit to get its act together particularly in the department of covering returns. They will need to keep their eyes on Chantz Staden:

KR CHANTZ STADEN (5-11, 200, Jr.): With teams scoring at will against the Cougars, Staden has gotten plenty of chances this season. He has returned 18 kickoffs this season for 451 yards, a respectable 25.1 average per return.

It would really help if Rotstein and Perez are putting a little extra something in their kicks to give our guys some time to get up field. I have raised this issue before. While Perez is a great punter, I think he gets off too many line drives not giving our guys enough time to get up the field. Meanwhile, Rotstein has only 1 TB through the first four games of this season. Hopefully we can get a little more out of those two. We are going to need our special teams to step up if we want to squeeze out few more wins rest of this season. Saturday would be a good time to get started.

GO BRUINS.

If anyone is feeling comfortable about this weekend’s game just remember this note from last season. Last season Washington State was coming off a humiliating 7-53 loss against Oregon and 1-4 record in the Pac-10 (3-5) to take on UCLA. We know what took place in Pullman after that. It was us who left that place humiliating as the Cougars beat us up by a score of 27-7. Cougars’ RB Dwight Tardy ran all over UCLA defense (which was decent last season) by rushing for 214 yards in 37 carries. Here is the box score if any one has the stomach to go through it again.

Dwight Tardy is back as he is looking to make a comeback from a major knee surgery from this past season.  He leads the team in rushing (250 yards in 66 carries, averaging 3.8 yards per carry). You can bet Tardy and the Cougar OL will be closely looking at the game film from this year’s UCLA defense which has posted some disconcerting numbers to date. More on that below.

Tardy is not the only RB Cougars have at their disposal. They also have Christopher Ivory who according to the bloggers at CougCenter “has shown the same difficult-to-tackle rushing ability that Jacquizz Rodgers showed” against Southern Cal. Ivory to date has rushed for 136 yards in 28 carries. So given that combination it would not be prudent for Walker’s front-7 to overlook these guys, especially considering how leaky our rushing defense has been so far this young season.

Meanwhile, the Cougar offense has other skill players that Wazzu fans are lot more excited about. Once again here is Grady from CougCenter (one of our latest colleagues in the SBN network, who have shown great composure and poise blogging about the Cougars in an incredibly difficult season they are experiencing in their ead coach’s first season). Anyway, Grady is excited about Brandon Gibson, the team’s leading WR and Marshall Lobbestael, the freshmen QB who has gotten a lot of a action in last two games:

1. Brandon Gibson - Of all of the players on the roster, only one seems to show NFL potential on a weekly basis. Gibson appears to have shaken off his case of the dropsies from the Oklahoma State game and is rounding back into form as one of the conference's elite receivers. He is on pace for another 1,000 yard season, although he probably won't repeat his outrageous 17.6 yards/catch average from 2007. And he's doing it while being the focus of the defense, and without current Seahawk Michael Bumpus at his side.

2. Marshall Lobbestael - First there's the nickname factor. You can call him "The Lobster", "Rock Lobster", "Ocho Rojo", or "The best FBS quarterback in the state of Washington now that Jake Locker is hurt". Either way, he has more good nicknames than Brink, Rogers and Lopina ever had, combined. Also, it turns out he's a decent QB. We may have a slightly unhealthy pseudo-obsession with Ocho Rojo here, but he's backing up the hype: he's the only Cougar QB with a positive TD/INT ratio (4:3), and is averaging 6.2 yards per pass attempt (remember, per attempt, not completion). Which begs the question: why the heck aren't we throwing it more?

Obviously this team is struggling and lot of those numbers were piled up courtesy of Portland State. However, once I will repeat again that it will be very foolish for our defense to get complacent and over look this team.

Tardy based on his last year’s success against a more talented Bruin defense is going to look to spike his numbers up against a defense which to date has given up 37.5 points per game. The defense so far has given up 679 yards in rushing with an average of 4.41 yards per carry [See cfbstats.com]. Those are not pretty numbers because the soft defense against opponent’s rushing attack has repeatedly put the opposing offenses in comfortable 3rd down situations and a lot of pressure on our young secondary.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, the Cougar defense is hurting up front. Nuss at Cougars center offered up the following simple explanation for their defensive struggles:

Without a doubt, this team has its fair share of problems at the moment. But none is more glaring -- or more damaging to the Cougs' chances of winning -- than the horrendous play of the defensive line, which is shaping up to be one of the worst in school history.

It starts with the tackles, A'i Ahmu and Matt Eichelberger, who are proving that they don't belong anywhere near a Pac-10 football field. Not only are both fat and slow, neither is very strong. Same goes for defensive ends Kevin Kooyman, Matt Mullennix and Andy Mattingly, who I suppose at least are trim and fit while not being very strong.

The result is all four being washed out on virtually every running play, unable to ever hold a gap at the point of attack. Consider the chain reaction this causes, which is practically fatal to this team's chances of ever stopping anyone against the run.

In some ways the problem the Cougar defense is having sounds kind of similar to what we are experiencing in Westwood. The struggles of our starting DEs and LBs (sans Carter) is also making our defense susceptible to the opponent’s rushing attack, while forcing secondary to make way more than their share of tackles. Currently the list of our top-5 tacklers include ATV, Lockett (even after missing a game) and Rahim Moore. That’s a not a good sign.

Going back to the Cougar’s defense, it will be imperative for our OL to come in with total focus and determination in this game. Let’s hope they are not patting themselves too much in the back following the encouraging performances from last two weeks. They will have to come into this game with a mean, nasty streak, and look to impose their will on a Cougars front-7, which by all accounts have been struggling this season.

Again, the Cougars are coming into Rose Bowl arguably in lot worse shape (and with out the luxury of a bye week to prepare for UCLA). Yet as we have reminded in our early morning notes today, it would be foolish to look past these guys given what they have done to us recently at the Rose Bowl embarrassing the Bruins in 2006 (35-15) and 2004 (when a 5-6 Wazzu team beat UCLA by a score of 31-29). Our guys will have to come in and get off to a good start. Otherwise, if they let these guys hang in the game early on, based recent history you can bet the Cougars will do everything they can to take advantage of their rare opportunity to grab a victory this season.

Bottom line, it is no time to get comfortable for our team or our fans.

GO BRUINS.

As the Bruins look to pivot from Fresno State and start preparing for Washington State, they find themselves preparing for an opponent, which is easy to over look. Bruins need win to stem their 3 game losing streak and they will get an opportunity to get that done against a struggling football team this weekend. However, for CRN and his troops to get a win they will need to bring the same effort and focus in practice they gave last game week heading into the Fresno State game. Brian Dohn reports on Bruins, who are looking for a win against a struggling Washington State:

"Winning is always justification for the effort," Neuheisel said. "So, yeah, we need a win badly. But we're going to get the effort. We'll keep pounding until the door breaks down."

That door should be flattened by halftime. UCLA has been outscored by a 126-41 margin during its three-game losing streak, but finds itself a 19-point favorite, or two more points than the Bruins are averaging per game.

"We just need a win," UCLA senior tailback Kahlil Bell said. "I think the effort has always been there. I think we play hard. But once we turn this thing around and start clicking, I think it's going to boost our confidence. We've got a lot of young guys."

Under first-year coach Paul Wulff, the Cougars' only win came against Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) Portland State. Their losses are to Oklahoma State (39-13), California (66-3), Baylor (45-17) and Oregon (63-14).

Washington State ranks 117 th (of 119) in scoring defense (44.4 ppg), 118 th in rushing defense (269 ypg), 106 th in total defense (436 ypg), 118 th in turnover margin (minus-2.6 per game), 92 nd in rushing offense (120.8 ypg), 96 th in total offense (322.4), 103 rd in scoring offense (19 ppg) and 113 th in sacks allowed (3 per game).

Despite those numbers, it will be absolutely foolish for this Bruin team and us to look past Washington State. Chris Foster from the LAT gives us a jolting reminder of our recent brutal history v. WSU:

"I would hope that the guys on our team, having been on the other side of the coin, realize they can't pay attention to that stuff," UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We'll make very sure that it is about us, and us improving."

While prognosticators are leaning the Bruins' way, history is on the side of the Cougars. Washington State has won six of its last seven games against UCLA, including the last three played at the Rose Bowl.

But this season, the Cougars have been outscored, 213-47, in their losses.

"Anyone who gets caught up in that stuff is just fooling themselves," Bell said. "We were a huge underdog against Tennessee. Look what happened."

Speaking of Bell, he is going to look for little more action this coming weekend. There is a pretty amusing note in the OC Register re why CRN took the cautious approach with Kahlil:

Bell carried 20 times for 73 yards in the Bruins' 36-31 loss, his first game action since suffering a high ankle sprain in the first quarter of UCLA's opener four weeks ago. But only two of those carries came after halftime.

During a Monday news conference, Coach Rick Neuheisel said he didn't want to push his starting tailback too hard once Bell intimated in the second half his ankle was sore.

“Kahlil's kind of like that guy from the Monty Python movies who gets his arm cut off and says it's a flesh wound,” Neuheisel said. “He'll tell you he can go.”

LOL at Monty Python reference but it pretty much gets to the point.

Speaking of on point, I will end with this quote from DeWayne Walker, which appeared in the Daily Bruin yesterday:

“It’s unfortunate that this team couldn’t have enjoyed a victory today,” defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. “I take full responsibility. It’s unfortunate, but our offense got better today, and I feel bad we couldn’t help them.”

I have been reading some interesting discussion re Walker in the threads. I understand why some folks are concerned about the defense three games into the season and are not sold on Walker’s defensive schemes. However, at the same time I also believe there is strong merit to the argument that we need to wait at least till the end of next season to assess the data points on some of the talented recruits Walker and his staff has attracted to Westwood this past two seasons.

For the short term though, Washington State presents a golden opportunity for Walker’s defense and the entire team, to improve upon the positives from last two weekends. Let’s hope they can get it done and continue to stay on the path of improvement this Saturday. However, the trick is going to be to prepare this week with the same intensity they prepared for the games against Tennessee and Washington State. It would be deadly to look past this Cougars team, no matter how much they have been struggling this season.

GO BRUINS.