Monday, October 26, 1998
Sweet 16
FOOTBALL: Bruin win over Cal marked by tight defense, with
missed scoring opportunities
By Rocky Salmon
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium last Saturday was the battleground
for UCLA and Cal’s action-packed game.
Like a big game of chess, both teams tried to checkmate the
other, but the defenses on both sides clamped down as needed.
After two turnovers, 12 penalties and two goal-line stands by
UCLA, the Bruins were able to squeak out a 28-16 win.
On the coin flip at the start of the game, UCLA won and deferred
the ball to challenge the defense. It proved to be a right
call.
During the first series at the UCLA 20 on third and 13, the Cal
quarterback tried to hit a streaking Damiene Douglas, but the ball
bounced off his shoulderpads and Larry Atkins picked it off Â
an omen of things to come.
On the next play by the Bruins, McNown was sacked and fumbled,
giving the Golden Bears the ball on the two. Cal punched it in for
an early seven-point lead.
On the kickoff Jermaine Lewis was stripped, giving Cal the ball
once more. The defense tightened up, however, and then Cal’s
deadliest player of the game entered the field for the first time:
punter Nick Harris.
Harris would eventually kick the ball nine times for an average
of 45.1 yards and would pin UCLA deep behind their own 20-yard line
six times. He was a crucial factor as UCLA had to stray from their
offensive game plan and play it more conservatively.
"Their punting game was great," Bob Toledo, UCLA head coach,
said. "It is hard to drive the ball 95 yards every time."
On the next drive UCLA scored to tie it up, then Brian
Poli-Dixon made a near impossible grab in the back of the endzone
to give UCLA a 14-7 lead.
The 35-yard pass hung in the air a good five yards away from
Poli-Dixon, but he was able to leap and grab the ball from the
defender even though the defender had a better position.
"I don’t really remember exactly how I caught it," Poli-Dixon,
who had four catches for 78 yards, said. "I just saw it up in the
air and kept running, then I left my feet. I just got it."
UCLA had trouble scoring the rest of the game as Cal’s punter
kept UCLA from obtaining good field position.
In a sport where field position is crucial to scoring, the
Bruins had trouble starting off from their 20.
"The field position was huge," Cade McNown said. "It’s hard to
get anything going when you have to run it up the middle. When you
do get a drive going, it is hard to sustain that drive for 90 yards
because you lose momentum."
What made it even harder for McNown to throw and for the UCLA
backs to run was that the field position let Cal bring nine people
up to the line and blitz on every play. The athletic Bears were up
in McNown’s face the entire game, creating three sacks but knocking
him to the grass on almost every pass.
"He was getting hit a lot at the beginning of the third
quarter," left tackle Kris Farris said, "So I went to the line and
told them Å’He’s not getting touched anymore. Let’s make that
our goal. I don’t care if you get a holding call or if you have to
grab someone by the ankles just keep them off of Cade."
In the fourth quarter Cal had a harder time getting to the
quarterback as McNown ran a few keepers and options for a total of
57 rushing yards. It eventually opened the gate for UCLA’s final
score, which was the dagger in the heart for Cal.
Running a fake counter, Jermaine Lewis pulled the ball back and
hit a wide open Jon Dubravac for a 30-yard touchdown strike. The
fake counter drew in No. 11 of Cal, Drae Harris, which sprung a
wide open Dubravac.
UCLA now 28, Cal 16. Game over.
Cal had lived too close to the edge by missing three red zone
chances and not coming up with points. First there was Larry
Atkins’ pick from the 20-yard line, then a devastating fumble at
the 2-yard line, caused by Robert Thomas, which Atkins
recovered.
To top it off, UCLA stopped Cal from inside the five on four
plays, the last of which the defensive line stood up the line, and
linebacker Tony White finished off the tackle. White would have an
outstanding game, finishing with 10 tackles.
"UCLA is calm and collected," Cal head coach, Tom Holmoe, said.
"They have one of the best field generals I’ve seen. He has just so
much savvy out there and has those intangibles you just don’t
coach. They make a killing on third down which hurt us in the
end."JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
Cal and UCLA players fight for a fumble at Saturday’s football
game in Berkeley Memorial Stadium. UCLA eventually recovered the
ball and went on to win, 28-16.
Photos by JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
Bruin quarterback Cade McNown throws a pass, narrowly avoiding a
sack from several Cal players.
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