Down by one point to Oregon at the Rose Bowl with a chance to
win the game on a field goal attempt, the Bruins had an uncanny
feeling they had been here before.
Saturday, senior kicker Chris Griffith’s 46-yard attempt
flew wide left and the Ducks ran out the clock. As the Bruins
looked up at the scoreboard that read Oregon 31- UCLA 30, they
recognized this feeling and it made them sick. It was
déjà vu for UCLA (4-2, 1-1 Pac-10) as it lost to Oregon
(6-0, 2-0 Pac-10) a year after losing 21-20 on a missed field goal
as time expired.
“It is hard to believe this game came down to one point
again,” said UCLA head coach Bob Toledo, who looked like he
had just seen a ghost.
Coming into the game, the Bruins, ranked No. 25 in the
ESPN/Coaches poll knew No. 7 Oregon would be its most difficult
test yet. With a loss in the second game of Pac-10 play, the Bruins
know they can still compete for the conference title, but one more
loss will take them out of contention.
In a recurring nightmare for Griffith, he was right back where
he had been last year. Sure there was 1:54 on the clock and it was
a 46-yarder instead of a 49-yarder, but hadn’t he been here
before? Like a dream he couldn’t wake up from, he kicked wide
left after last year’s kick fell short and wide right.
“It’s weird with Oregon,” Griffith said.
“I had a feeling it was going to come down to that
again.”
The two teams exchanged points tying four times in the game. Had
Griffith’s extra point in the third quarter not been blocked,
the score would also have been tied at 31.
That extra point attempt came after UCLA drove to the Oregon 46
and found itself in a third-and-ten situation. Senior quarterback
Cory Paus, 17-of-31 for 316 yards with three interceptions and
three touchdowns, tossed up a looping screen pass. Sophomore wide
receiver Craig Bragg looked more like a basketball player going for
the jump ball as he got one hand on it, yanked it in, and ran for a
46 yard touchdown. On the extra point, Duck true freshman defensive
tackle Haloti Ngata penetrated the middle and blocked the kick.
“When we missed that extra point, I knew it was going to
come back to haunt us and it did,” true freshman tight end
Marcedes Lewis said.
The momentum continued to swing in Oregon’s direction.
Although UCLA drove to the Oregon 28, the team found itself on
fourth down with 15 yards to go and set up in field goal formation.
Holder Garret Lepisto faked and passed the ball to Lewis but the
eight yard pass was well short of a first down.
“We felt it was going to be a high-scoring football
game,” Toledo said, explaining his rationale. Again, it
sounded eerily like last year.
“We felt there were going to be a lot more points
scored,” he said of not going for two when UCLA scored their
last touchdown, early in the fourth quarter.
Up six again, Rose Bowl patrons started to get a queasy feeling.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, junior quarterback Jason
Fife who was 14-of-18 for 202 yards hit senior wide receiver Keenan
Howry for a 74-yard touchdown that put the Ducks up 31-30. The deja
vu intensified.
UCLA failed to get in field goal range on the next possession
but got the ball back with 5:54 left. Although they made four first
downs, redshirt freshman running back Tyler Ebell, who had 119
yards on the day, lost yardage on two consecutive downs, putting
UCLA at third-and-14 at the Oregon 29. Paus threw a short flat pass
to Bragg that fell incomplete.
“We thought we were running that ball pretty well,”
said Toledo explaining the calls.
“We had driven pretty well up to that point,” he
said last year after tailback Akil Harris could not cut the right
corner on third-and-five from the Oregon 33.
Enter Griffith. All over again.
“I knew it would be like that again because we are evenly
matched,” sophomore defensive back Matt Ware said. UCLA had
477 yards of offense to Oregon’s 383 with one of
Oregon’s touchdowns coming off a 79-yard punt return by
Howry.
“If we had made one more play somewhere,” Bragg
said. “We just fell one play short.”
One play short.
Again.