Friday, November 7, 1997
Defensive line finds itself in forefront with national stats
FOOTBALL: Players hold back opposing teams to help lead Bruins
to wins
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Staff
It seems that as of late, nobody’s been as hot as the Bruin
offense.
That is, nobody except for the Bruin defense.
On a team nationally known for its offensive prowess, the
defensive squad has been climbing the national charts at an
alarming, if not quiet, rate.
In fact, the UCLA defense ranks 19th in rushing defense (105.2
yards per game) and 15th in the passing efficiency defense (101.0
ypg). In what many would consider one of the strangest stats of the
season, these rankings are actually higher than the offense’s
(passing: 21st, rushing: not among top 25).
Nobody will ever claim that the defense is solely responsible
for the Bruins’ recent seven-game winning streak, but without a
doubt, they are playing a main role.
"I can’t say enough good things about our defense," head coach
Bob Toledo said. "The defensive guys are hitting everything in
sight."
Never was this more noticeable than last weekend’s 27-7 victory
over Stanford. The Cardinal, held to negative 34 yards rushing,
were shut out for the first 59 minutes of the game.
"Defensively, that’s the best performance we’ve had since I’ve
been at UCLA," Toledo said.
They have come a long way from the first two games of the year –
when Washington State and Tennessee racked up 37 and 30 points,
respectively. Since then, opponents have only averaged 15 points
per game and would be scoring even less if the second-string
defensive squad hadn’t surrendered four meaningless touchdown
drives in the final minutes of lopsided wins.
And at the front of this turnaround is the defensive line,
literally.
As one of the smaller lines in the conference, it was considered
the Bruins’ main question mark at the beginning of the season – and
it proved the skeptics right early on, getting no sacks in the
first two contests. But since then, the line has constantly
terrorized opposing quarterbacks. The line has combined for 11
sacks, 30 tackles for losses and has recovered six fumbles, in
addition to the numerous bad passes they have forced from
scrambling quarterbacks.
"I thought coming into the season that we were going to play
well and we have," defensive end Weldon Forde said. "Some of the
guys are undersized, but that doesn’t measure how much heart you
have – that’s one thing that this defense has a lot of."
And it’s not just one player who is dominating; rather, they are
all playing a part.
Forde has four sacks, while defensive tackles Damon Smith and
Jeff Ruckman each have three. Defensive end Jason Nevadomsky is
second on the team with eight tackles for losses, while Kenyon
Coleman is tied for the team lead with three fumble recoveries.
"There’s no person that’s sticking out on the stat chart," Forde
said. "Everybody’s playing well and making plays. Especially the
last couple games. Each game a different person shines."
And they’ve been shining pretty bright.
* * *
Game time for the Nov. 15 contest against Washington at the Rose
Bowl has been set for 12:30 p.m.
The game will be televised by ABC on a regional basis.