This much is clear: On the offensive side of the ball UCLA has
their work cut out for themselves. But special teams ““
that’s a different story, as that unit was the difference in
the Bruins’ 6-3 victory over Illinois Saturday night.
Whether it was junior inside linebacker Tim Warfield recovering
a fumbled punt return, or a field goal by freshman kicker Justin
Medlock, special teams made the big plays when it counted.
“The special teams did well,” UCLA head coach Karl
Dorrell said. “There were a couple of big punt returns that
gave us good field position for starting drives, although we
didn’t capitalize on that enough.”
With an inept offense, field position, or more importantly,
field goal range, became very important for the Bruins.
When Christian Morton fumbled a punt return for the Illini and
Warfield recovered the ball on the Illinois 33 yard-line with 8:45
remaining in the second quarter, the Bruins quickly
capitalized.
UCLA capitalized quickly because the Bruins only managed a four
play drive for two yards ““ but it culminated in a 48-yard
field goal by Medlock that was the difference in the game.
“I was real confident going into this week,” Medlock
said. “I didn’t miss any field goals in
practice.”
All that confidence may be a bit surprising ““ Medlock
missed his only field goal attempt in last week’s 16-14 loss
to Colorado ““ a miss that was the difference in the game.
Medlock’s first field goal of Saturday’s game, a
28-yard kick with 2:52 remaining in the first quarter that put the
Bruins up 3-0, wasn’t even necessary, in terms of boosting
his confidence.
“It gave me a little bit of confidence, but I really
thought I wasn’t going to miss one,” Medlock said.
With the game winding down to the final seconds, Illinois
attempted a 43-yard field goal, but John Gockman’s kick
sailed left, and senior inside linebacker Brandon Chillar, who
blocked an extra point attempt in the final minutes of last
week’s game, let out a sigh of relief.
“It was just a good feeling (watching the attempt
miss),” Chillar said. “It took out some of the
frustration from last week. We needed this win.”
Throughout the game, UCLA returned kicks well, with junior wide
receiver Craig Bragg handling duties on punts, and freshman running
back Maurice Drew returning kickoffs.
A 14-yard punt return by Bragg gave the Bruins good field
position for an 11 play, 58-yard drive that resulted in
Medlock’s first field goal.
Bragg returned four punts, his longest return for 30 yards.
Drew, who last week fumbled the ball on his first collegiate touch,
returned two kickoffs for 24 yards a piece.
“Drew did a nice job of returning,” Dorrell said.
“He got the cobwebs out of the way from last week.”
Junior punter Chris Kluwe rounded out the Bruins’
impressive special teams performance, as he made 10 punts, with his
longest of the day for 48 yards.
More impressively, Kluwe pinned three punts inside the 20
yard-line, including his final punt.
That last kick put the Illini on their own 15 yard-line with
3:02 remaining in the game ““ giving Illinois quite a long
field to work with.
“Special teams are always huge,” Illinois Head Coach
Ron Turner said. “Tonight was no different and you
can’t make mistakes against a great team. You can’t
turn the ball over and it’s on the coaches and the players.
We can do it better.”
Luckily, for UCLA, the Bruins did it good enough.