STILLWATER, Okla. – There was a bad little man on Cory
Paus’ shoulder. Perhaps it was even Pistol Pete. When Paus
threw an interception on his first pass of the game he sent the
Cowboy crowd into a hysteria as loud as their orange shirts. "I was
trying not to think about it," the senior quarterback said. "You
got the devil and the angel on your shoulders. One guy says, ‘Oh
here we go again, you’re gonna have a bad game.’ The other
guy says, ‘Keep your head up, you’re gonna be fine.’" Paus
fell for Pistol Pete’s barbs as he lined up in the shotgun on
the next drive, down 7-0 after UCLA’s first team defense gave up a
touchdown off the interception return to the UCLA 29.
Second-and-six. Incomplete. Third and six. Incomplete. The punt
team came on and Paus went out. It looked like Pistol Pete might be
right. Perhaps Paus was lucky that he was not in the Rose Bowl
hearing his own fans boo him as they did during rough patches last
week. Perhaps the deafening roar of a Cowboy crowd was preferable.
But in all his off-season troubles, Paus seemed to have found a new
attitude. An optimism that seemed almost cheesy. "It doesn’t
matter if you believe me," he said Monday at the weekly press
conference. "It only matters what I think of myself." Down 10-0,
Paus proved to be a gunslinger himself, leading a 73-yard drive
where he went 3-for-3 ending with a 41-yard touchdown pass to Craig
Bragg with 5:01 left in the first quarter. "You gotta listen to
that other guy more," Paus said and did. On the evening,
Paus’ three touchdown passes put him fourth on the UCLA
career touchdown pass list behind Troy Aikman. "He settled down a
little. The first game (against Colorado State) was jitters. We all
know the pressure he’s been under," UCLA head coach Bob
Toledo said. In a shootout, the ball went back and forth on
turnovers. Redshirt freshman Spencer Havner intercepted Josh Fields
on the ensuing drive and returned the ball for a touchdown. Five
minutes after looking over-matched, the Bruins were up 14-10 with
4:42 left in the first. The defense returned to form, forcing the
Cowboys to go three-and-out. The offense was back with the help of
a Paus 31-yard toss to Manuel White that set up a field goal to put
the Bruins ahead 17-10 after one quarter. True freshman Drew Olson
was in for only one series of the second quarter, silencing anyone
that wanted to stir up a quarterback controversy. His single drive
went three-and-out. "Getting me experience is important, but
winning football games is more important," Olson said. Capitalizing
on sophomore safety Ben Emanuel II’s 23-yard interception
return, the Bruins moved 22 yards and attempted a 48-yard field
goal that Chris Griffith missed wide left. Oklahoma State moved
Endzone Ho! on the ensuing 11-play drive until Havner, making his
second critical play of the evening, forced a fumble at the UCLA
18-yard line. Making the most of 9 and 45-yard completions to
junior wide receiver Tab Perry, UCLA marched to the OSU 11 and took
a timeout. "The whole time I said Cory, tell them to run a.certain
play we run in the end zone," senior tight end Mike Seidman said.
"I knew I could get them. Cory came back to the huddle and called
the play. I gave a little in to the post and they bit. I took it to
the corner and was wide open." The Bruins who came into the game
looking sloppy suddenly looked smooth up 24-10 with 2:28 remaining
in the half. The Cowboys changed quarterbacks, putting in Aso Pogi
for Josh Fields, but could not change the nature of the game. The
quarterbacks just threw it up and hoped the right guy would come
down with it. Sometimes they did, but at the end of the half it was
Matt Ware with his hands on the ball, ending another Oklahoma State
drive. In the second half, Paus completed a 22-yarder to Bragg who
juked defenders to gain a few extra yards. Under pressure, Paus
then threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Ryan
Smith to score 31 unanswered points. But the Cowboys went down
shooting. Rashaun Woods came up with a touchdown when he out-jumped
senior corner Ricky Manning in the end zone to put OSU back in the
game 38-17. An already young defense was downright infantile with
the loss of sophomore safety Matt Ware to a sprained ankle, junior
linebacker Brandon Chillar to cramps, and senior linebacker Macus
Reese to foot pain. "The game was up and down. It seemed like there
would be one big play for us and one big play for them. But we had
confidence in the second team, and they handled it," Emanuel said.
With the Cowboys back in the game in the third quarter, Paus threw
two incomplete passes and was sacked for 10 yards to end a drive.
He could have started listening to Pistol Pete again, but instead
Paus maturely went down holding the ball tight on the sack. He
returned the next drive with a completion to freshman tight end
Marcedes Lewis. "The fans were abusing us. I’m amazed we kept
our composure," he said. It was Lewis’ first career catch.
Akil Harris pushed most of the rest of the way with a 34-yard gain
following a Bragg reverse. UCLA’s running game improved
greatly in the second half; they finished with 189 rushing yards
after gaining only 46 in the first half. "At halftime we adjusted
to some holes in their defense," Harris said. "They were bigger and
faster than they looked on tape. They swarmed the ball every time."
On third and goal from 3 yards out Paus ran around the side and
just missed a defender, cutting into the corner of the end zone
just in time. The Bruins were up 38-17 to end the third quarter.
OSU scored on the first drive of the fourth quarter on the back of
Seymore Shaw putting the Cowboys within reach at 38-24. But that
was as close as Pistol Pete and the Posse ever got. Ben Emmanuel
ended their hopes for a comeback when he intercepted Fields at the
UCLA 39 yard line after the Cowboys’ best punt return of the night,
a 25-yard return by Davis-Bryant. "There were some drives where I
could have played better," Paus said after the game. "That gives me
and the other young quarterbacks some great teaching tools." They
just need to know who to listen to.