MIKE CHIEN Oregon wide receiver George
Gillett "defends" against a long pass to Bruin freshman
Craig Bragg in the second quarter of UCLA’s 21-20 loss to the Ducks
at the Rose Bowl. Oregon St. 21 UCLA 20
By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff
With two seconds of regulation remaining, Chris Griffith’s
50-yard field goal attempt wound up in a fate similar to
UCLA’s season. Just short.
Minutes before the ill-fated kick, the final score of the
Washington loss to Oregon State flashed on the Rose Bowl
scoreboard, a telling sign that the Bruins were still very much in
contention for a Pac-10 title. But when Griffith’s kick faded
short and wide right, so did UCLA’s hope for a meaningful end
to an emotion-draining two-game winning drought.
“Those guys will probably win the championship and go to
the Fiesta Bowl, and we were one point short of beating
them,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said of his team’s
loss to No. 7 Oregon. “I felt our players gave us a great
effort and I’m really sorry that we came up short.”
In what appeared to be a magical last drive starting at
UCLA’s 20, the Bruins survived two third-down scares, the
first converted by a Craig Bragg reception and the second by an
Akil Harris run. After failing to convert on a third-and-five
Harris run at Oregon’s 33-yard line, UCLA chose to run the
clock to two seconds and make an attempt at a field goal rather
than a short pass.
“We didn’t want to make a bad play,” Toledo
said. “We wanted to either win it or lose it with a field
goal.”
The irony of Saturday’s narrow loss to Oregon (9-1, 6-1
Pac-10) was that the Bruins (6-3, 3-3) looked like a team that had
shaped up after two disappointing losses to Stanford and Washington
State.
Cory Paus, who won back the starting job early in the week,
looked impressive in his reclaimed role as UCLA’s
signal-caller, finishing the day 14-of-22 for 321 yards passing.
Harris and Manuel White combined for 108 yards rushing in
replacement of DeShaun Foster. When all the puzzle pieces were fit
together, however, it was the Ducks who held the lead.
After shanking a field goal attempt off the left upright in
their first offensive series, the Ducks drove 74 yards down the
field for the game’s first score, capped by a Joey Harrington
touchdown run in which he slipped through the grasp of three Bruin
defenders.
On their next offensive series, the Bruins exchanged the favor,
driving the length of the field and setting up a Harris flip into
the end zone to tie the score at seven apiece.
The first quarter ended with a crucial call. While the Bruin
defense stopped the Ducks on three consecutive downs, Audie Attar
was called for roughing Oregon punter Jose Arroyo, giving the Ducks
a first down, 15 extra yards, and another chance to produce
points.
“I barely touched him, and (Arroyo) was looking like he
put a lot on it,” Attar said. “I looked over and he was
on the sidelines smiling and celebrating. It was a good
dramatization. But that’s his job. That’s what a good
punter is supposed to do.”
Six plays later, the Ducks made good on the penalty after
tailback Maurice Morris crept in for the one-yard touchdown,
regaining the lead at 14-7. The UCLA offense failed to capitalize
on their next three trips to the red zone. With 9:50 left in the
first half, an 11-yard Harris run would have given the Bruins a
first-and-goal situation on Oregon’s four-yard line, but a
holding penalty brought the ball back to the 25. Oregon’s
Rashad Bauman stopped the drive on the next play, intercepting a
deflected Paus pass.
Despite a strong UCLA defensive stand on the next series that
set up an Oregon punt and a Bruin drive to their three-yard line,
the offense was once again unable to reach the end zone, settling
for a 20-yard Griffith field goal that brought the score to 14-10
for the first half of play.
In the first series of the second half, UCLA drove 57 yards to
the Oregon 20, and once again, settled for a field goal. A series
later, however, the Bruins were able march into the end zone for
their 12th unanswered point after White pushed in for a one-yard
touchdown run one minute into the fourth quarter, giving UCLA a
five-point lead at 19-14.
In a controversial move, Toledo opted to go for one after the
touchdown, rather than attempt a two-point conversion that would
give the Bruins a touchdown lead, a call that would haunt the
Bruins later in the game.
“We had talked about going for two, and we felt it was too
early,” Toledo said. “It was early in the fourth
quarter, and if you don’t make it, you’re up by five
and two field goals would beat you. We thought there would be a lot
more points scored after that, and all of a sudden it became a real
stalemate.”
The Ducks threaded their way through UCLA’s defense on the
next series, converting a huge fourth-and-goal. Harrington’s
pass to fullback Josh Line for a one-yard touchdown score gave the
Ducks the lead, 21-20.
“To see them drive down the field like that was a tough
thing,” UCLA linebacker Ryan Nece said. “On that last
goal line play, we didn’t make the call we needed to and we
came up short.”