PULLMAN, Wash. “”mdash; Of all the seemingly countless mistakes
UCLA made during its 31-13 loss to Washington State, the two that
were especially devastating came on special teams.
The Bruins had cut the lead to 14-6 late in the second quarter
with a Justin Medlock field goal and forced a punt on the ensuing
drive from the Cougar end zone.
Punt returner Craig Bragg caught the line drive at the
Washington State 45-yard line and raced all the way down to the
Washington State 16-yard line.
Then he spun, and that began the Bruins’ unraveling.
Erik Coleman jarred the ball loose, and Jeremy Bohannon scooped
up the fumble and returned it 72 yards the other way to kill any
possibility of a UCLA game-tying drive.
“It feels terrible,” said Bragg, whose return would
have been wiped out by a holding call regardless. “I was just
trying to do too much. I was trying to spark the team, but I
probably should have just went down.”
Washington State tailback Jonathan Smith ran the ball for a
12-yard touchdown on the following play, capitalizing on one of a
season-high seven turnovers that UCLA committed in the game.
“We thought it would be a momentum-changer for us
offensively, but it ends up being a big play for them,” UCLA
coach Karl Dorell said.
Moments later, Smith was the beneficiary of another bad Bruin
mistake. This one didn’t show up on the stat sheet as a
turnover, but it was more demoralizing than any of them.
After a three-and-out following the touchdown, walk-on freshman
long snapper Riley Jondle bounced his snap back to punter Chris
Kluwe. Unfortunately, Kluwe had trouble fielding it, and was forced
to run out of bounds at the UCLA 9.
Smith then rumbled in to put Washington State up 28-6 at
halftime.
“I’m feeling empty,” Jondle said sullenly.
“I just cut it short and went back early to block. It’s
hard because I know I can do (the job).”
“When it was 14-6, at a point where it seemed like we were
putting ourselves back in the football game, those were critical
plays that really distanced us from where we should have
been,” Dorrell said.
In the span of less than a minute, UCLA’s special teams
let down the team once again, only succeeding in distinguishing
itself as quite possibly the worst in the conference.
There weren’t even any punt returns for touchdowns given
up Saturday.
And Bragg, who had a tough time fielding punts properly last
week against Stanford, said he remains confident in his
abilities.
Jondle, meanwhile, just had two words to explain the special
teams’ situation.
“Shit happens.”