Let's get right to it. Lonnie White reports just how ugly it got against a 1-4 football team last night at the Rose Bowl:
The Bruins, who defeated Oklahoma by 17 points the last time they played two weeks ago, basically stunk up the Rose Bowl in the first half, falling behind by 10 points.
* UCLA, which averaged nearly 50 points over the first three games, did not score a point over the first two quarters, gaining 104 yards in 30 offensive plays.
* Drew, who had a second-quarter punt return for a touchdown nullified because of an illegal block penalty on teammate Rodney Van, had 17 yards in seven attempts.
* Olson, second in the Pac-10 in passing efficiency before Saturday, completed nine of 18 passes for 77 yards and had his first two interceptions of the season.
* Washington, which averaged only 107.3 yards rushing over the first four games, had 100 on the ground at intermission.
Just fugly. Kuwada has more on just how bad it looked (not to mention felt for those of us watching on tube across the coast):
* UCLA, which averaged nearly 50 points over the first three games, did not score a point over the first two quarters, gaining 104 yards in 30 offensive plays.
* Drew, who had a second-quarter punt return for a touchdown nullified because of an illegal block penalty on teammate Rodney Van, had 17 yards in seven attempts.
* Olson, second in the Pac-10 in passing efficiency before Saturday, completed nine of 18 passes for 77 yards and had his first two interceptions of the season.
* Washington, which averaged only 107.3 yards rushing over the first four games, had 100 on the ground at intermission.
[O]n Saturday, coming off a bye week, the Bruins showed nothing for much of the four quarters and were fortunate to come away with a 21-17 victory at the Rose Bowl over a Washington Huskies team that has done little right this season.
The Bruins (4-0) were lucky to learn another lesson and not get saddled with what would have been an ugly loss. Washington came in only 1-3, the victory over lowly Idaho. The Huskies had been blown out by Cal, 56-17, and by Notre Dame, 36-17. They were last in the Pac-10 in scoring and total defense, ninth in points allowed and rushing defense, and eighth in rushing offense.
This is not a good football team.
Watching the game in first half just brought back all the memories of ugly, sloppy, unfocused football games that have so typified the mediocre tenure of Karl Dorrell's three years in Westwood. Now to be fair, got to have to give props to Drew Olson, the senior quarterback, who FINALLY notched his first come from behind fourth quarter win in Westwood. DO, despite playing like the old DO in first two quarters got it together after falling behind 7-17 deep into 3rd quarter. The kid led three clutch drives, and ended up having a stellar second half in which he completed 20 of 26 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns.The Bruins (4-0) were lucky to learn another lesson and not get saddled with what would have been an ugly loss. Washington came in only 1-3, the victory over lowly Idaho. The Huskies had been blown out by Cal, 56-17, and by Notre Dame, 36-17. They were last in the Pac-10 in scoring and total defense, ninth in points allowed and rushing defense, and eighth in rushing offense.
This is not a good football team.
Photo Credit: Mark J Terrill, AP
Props to DO.
But the story of this game is still how unprepared and unfocused, lethargic we looked against one of the two worst teams in the Pac-10. There were simply no excuses for the way we stunk up the joint in Rose Bowl last night, after leaving that venue such good vibes two weekends ago. Dorrell hapless tried to spin an awful performance with his typical predictable coach speak. From Dohn:
"That was one of those games you learn a lot about yourself, as a team, and of your program," UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "We're still growing as a team. We're still young. That was a great experience to go through, and I say that now because we won the game.
"Sometimes you're not going to get your best performance and you have to put together a performance to win a football game and we were able to do that. That shows a lot of positive signs about the character of our team. There's no quit in our team."
LOL. KD probably thinks everyone in the BruinsNation is as clueless as he looks on the sideline. We heard the same nonsense of a team growing up, getting experience, being young, and yes character, after god awful performances in games like Illinois, SDSU, Arizona, and ASU during 03 and 04 seasons. Yes we started 03 with a 6-2 record and we started 04 at 4-1, but deep down inside we all knew something was terrible unstable. And now despite the predictable spin after last night's game of us having so much character and heart blah blah blah, that feeling of uncertainty is back. We are 4-0. Big deal. We have seen good starts before. It's nothing new for us. What we have no clue about right now is how we are going to respond next weekend in our biggest game of this season to date against a great football team. It's an unsettling feeling. I can't imagine majority of BruinsNation having any confidence in Dorrell that he is going to be able to get the team ready for Tedford's troops. And that is a testament to the coaching ability or lack of it on the part of Karl Dorrell. Despite all the feel good spin coming out of Dorrell's minions from last few weeks, right now it is turning out to be the same old overplayed boring song we have been hearing for last three seasons. Not good.
"Sometimes you're not going to get your best performance and you have to put together a performance to win a football game and we were able to do that. That shows a lot of positive signs about the character of our team. There's no quit in our team."