Monday, September 29, 1997
Revenge is sweet
FOOTBALL: Both offense and defense displayed great tenacity as
the Bruins beat Arizona
By Mark Dittmer
Daily Bruin Staff
Quarterback Keith Smith led his Arizona Wildcats to Pasadena on
Saturday looking to gain some rhythm in what has thus far been a
disappointing season for himself and his team. However, UCLA
refused to let him dance.
Instead, the No. 24 UCLA football team teased him, allowing him
to smell success and then pulling it away on one game-turning,
shoulder-jarring play that left Smith with a torn muscle in his
shoulder and his Wildcats reeling on their way to a 40-27
defeat.
The instigator of the play, UCLA linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo,
had raced past the left side of Arizona’s line untouched and
blind-sided Smith, forcing a fumble. Afterward, Ayanbadejo raised
his arms in celebration before noticing the ball bouncing at his
feet.
Bruin safety Larry Atkins pounced on the ball at Arizona’s five
yard line, setting up a five yard touchdown run for Bruin running
back Skip Hicks (his third of four scores on the day) to make the
score 30-17.
Sixty-one seconds later, another Arizona turnover and another
Bruin touchdown had put the game practically out of reach for the
Wildcats (1-3, 0-2 Pac-10). All this while Smith sat on the
sideline nursing a shoulder injury that left him unable to rotate
his arm.
"I got hit; I didn’t expect it," Smith, maybe the most mobile
quarterback in the Pac-10, said. "I didn’t see him coming."
It’s been that kind of season for Smith, who was supposed to be
a rising star of the Pac-10 but is instead enduring an unenviable
sophomore slump.
Last year Smith completed 60.6 percent of his passes and had an
efficiency rating of 136.3; this year those numbers – going into
Saturday’s game – were 47.3 percent and 93.3.
In this game, the Wildcats had spent the last sixteen minutes of
the first half scrapping their way back into a game that had gotten
out of hand early. By halftime, a 20-0 UCLA lead had evaporated,
and the Bruins (2-2, 1-1) had a 23-17 game on their hands.
Smith was largely responsible for the comeback; after missing on
seven of eight passes early, he completed six of his last seven in
the second quarter.
"We were having success with the no-huddle," Smith said. "At
halftime I felt like going out of that second quarter that we had a
rhythm going and I just wanted to go out there (in the third
quarter)."
Then it all slipped away from Smith and the Wildcats.
"Yeah, it’s frustrating," the Los Angeles native said after a
7-for-15 performance. "It seems like every time I come to L.A.
something bad happens." (Last year Smith injured his non-throwing
shoulder in a loss at USC, forcing him to sit out the second
half.)
While the first minute of the third quarter may have been the
key to UCLA’s victory, the Bruins’ best football was probably
played in the first quarter.
Two weeks removed from a 66-3 thrashing of Texas, UCLA picked up
where it left off.
The Bruins started the game’s first drive on their 26-yard line.
Two minutes and 56 seconds later, the Bruins had driven for the
game’s opening touchdown. Bruin quarterback Cade McNown was 2-for-2
on the drive, throwing for 66 yards.
Arizona quickly turned the ball over on downs, and then the
Bruins executed another touchdown drive. This one lasted one minute
and 24 seconds, took five plays and covered 55 yards. Skip Hicks
rushed for 42 of those yards on just two carries, one of them a
19-yard touchdown run.
In five minutes and 37 seconds, UCLA put up 14 points and
amassed 129 yards, against a defense that had been the best in the
conference. Though UCLA’s offense was never again as dominant as it
was in those first five minutes, Bruin head coach Bob Toledo was
still glowing by the end of the game.
"We have a good running game, we have a good play-action game,
we have a good drop-back game, we have a good screen game," Toledo
said. "We have a lot of formations, a lot of motions, a lot of
things, so that creates problems for people."
The rout went on for a little while longer. Arizona fumbled on
the second play of its next possession, and soon UCLA was knocking
on the door again. And after a two-yard gain by Skip Hicks that put
the Bruins on the Arizona 12-yard line, Wildcat defensive star Joe
Salave’a was slow getting up.
The defensive lineman lay on the field for a couple of minutes,
with trainers leaning over him, while the Arizona defense stood on
the field waiting. Maybe they needed the time to regroup. After
Salave’a walked off the field unassisted, the Wildcats defense
stiffened, holding UCLA to a field goal.
"We just began to execute better as a defense," Arizona’s
All-Pac-10 cornerback, Chris McAlister, said. "We let it slip away
from the beginning. We just got behind and we never really gained
control of the game again."
Smith and the Arizona offense, meanwhile, took longer to awaken.
When Arizona took its fourth possession with 1:14 left in the first
quarter, Smith had yet to complete a pass (he was 0-for-4), and the
Wildcats had not netted a first down.
Arizona then methodically proceeded to ruin all of those stats.
On first-and-10, Smith completed a seven-yard pass to Brady Batten.
On second-and-three, UCLA was called for pass interference, for an
automatic first down. And on first-and-10 from its own 33-yard
line, Arizona got a brilliant 67-yard run from Canidate, who
outsprinted three UCLA defensive backs on the play.
The Wildcats would strike again in the second quarter on a
19-yard pass from Smith to Rodney Williams. By that time the score
was 20-14, and UCLA looked anything but dominant. The Bruin offense
had become suddenly tame, while Smith and Arizona were just
beginning to find their rhythm.
The two teams traded field goals before halftime, and Arizona
started the third quarter with the ball at its 20-yard line.
Seven plays, one minute, 21 seconds and 14 UCLA points later,
the score was 37-17, and Ortege Jenkins was quarterbacking the
Wildcats. He would work the rest of the day against a strong
defense, and the Bruins spent the rest of the day running out the
clock.
"There’s no question that the two turnovers really put the nail
in the coffin," Toledo said.
Those were also the turnovers that sent Arizona and Keith Smith
home, still struggling to find their rhythm.JUSTIN WARREN/Daily
Bruin
Tailback Skip Hicks celebrates in the end zone after scoring the
second of his four touchdowns against Arizona Saturday. Hicks later
broke UCLA’s career touchdown record.