In the first quarter of UCLA’s loss to Oregon on Oct. 21, one ESPN announcer put it like this: “I don’t think the Bruins are really playing that badly, and they’re still getting steamrolled.”
Bruins fans were surely upset over another blowout loss for their team, and by no means did the Bruins play well.
But at what point is one team just … better?
And with the Arizona Wildcats coming into the Rose Bowl Saturday, maybe now would be a good time for Bruin fans to realize that a majority of the teams on UCLA’s schedule are currently better football teams.
Period.
And if ever that were the case, it was when the Bruins took on the Ducks.
Many believed that since the Bruins had the audacity to walk into the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and demolish the Longhorns earlier in the season, the Oregon game would be the second time UCLA would pull off a huge upset this season.
And the Bruins actually got off to a decent start. On UCLA’s first drive, Richard Brehaut, who started in place of an injured Kevin Prince (what a surprise), completed his first couple of passes, Johnathan Franklin had some success rushing, and the Bruins marched down to the Oregon 30-yard line.
But when I say that from that point on it was all downhill for UCLA, I’m not exaggerating. Brehaut was picked off on the Oregon 10-yard line, and UCLA suddenly committed the biggest mistake it possibly could have.
It let the Ducks offense take the field.
And when they did, it wasn’t pretty.
So, when the score was 29-3 with a little more than four minutes to go in the half, the game officially over, I ditched my pessimism and attempted to look at the Bruins second-straight drubbing from a different angle.
Was UCLA really any match for this Oregon team?
Let’s look at what the Ducks have done this season: They lead the nation in points per game, they’re third in the nation in rushing yards per game and they have battered every team that has come across their way, including a dominating victory over Stanford.
What signs pointed toward UCLA winning this game? None that I can think of. And not to be a downer, but there aren’t a lot of signs pointing toward an upset over No. 15 Arizona this weekend.
This is not to say that UCLA doesn’t have a chance to win this game, because it absolutely does. This is just to say that Bruins fans need to come back down to earth. The Texas win was more than a month ago.
The UCLA faithful can’t live off of that anymore.
The fact is, since that Longhorns upset, UCLA is 1-2, with the two losses coming in blowout fashion and the one win being an unimpressive one.
Going back to Oregon, the Ducks came out and did exactly what they have done all season, which is score points. If there were any aspect of the game that should leave Bruins fans alarmed, it’s the fact that they were only able to put 13 points on the board, not the fact that Oregon scored 60. The Ducks scored 52 on Stanford, 48 against Tennessee and 72 in their season-opener.
Giving up 60 is bad. It’s terrible. But it’s a bit understandable considering the opponent.
To be honest, there was really no hope of UCLA slowing down the Oregon offense, but they could have at least hung some points on the Ducks. Washington State scored 23 in its game against Oregon. Arizona State scored 31 on the Ducks.
The 13 points scored by the Bruins is the lowest that any Pac-10 opponent has scored against Oregon so far. And what is more alarming is that the Ducks only had the ball for 21:29 of the game.
UCLA held possession for 38:31!
I’m no math wiz, but that is a pretty embarrassing statistic.
Now, with Arizona coming into town, what positive aspects of the Bruins’ last two games do fans have to hold on to?
The Wildcats are coming off of a 30-point victory over the Washington Huskies without their starting QB.
Lord forbid Nick Foles makes his way back into the lineup this Saturday.
So, last week we graded the Bruins defense and offense up to this point in the season. Then we agreed to wait on Rick Neuheisel’s grade because of the prospects of a major upset.
Remember?
Well, that upset didn’t happen and didn’t really have a chance to happen. So my gut instinct tells me to not even count the Oregon loss into the C grade that I want to give Neuheisel and his staff.
But I can’t discount a 60-13 butt-kicking. So Neuheisel gets a C, which actually isn’t bad.
The reason I’m grading Neuheisel so high is that it’s my belief that a coach can only do so much. At some point, the players have to make it happen.
And minus the Texas win, the phrase “make it happen” doesn’t seem to be one in these UCLA players’ vocabularies.
E-mail Watson at [email protected].