I had this column written midway through the fourth quarter.
I was going to tell you not to be surprised that UCLA
couldn’t prevail with a beleaguered defensive line going
against a behemoth running offense. That you should have seen this
coming after the struggles it faced in the Washington game.
By the game’s final play, though, I was the one surprised,
and instead of patting myself on the back for picking Cal, I was
scratching my head for a new topic.
“If you had questions about last week, well, there you
have it,” UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said, apparently telling
skeptics like me that late-game heroics were now run of the mill
for his Bruins.
I still had plenty of questions, such as whether the
defense’s charitable contributions qualified them for tax
exemptions. But Dorrell had already mentioned that nothing
reporters asked could get him down that night, so I figured
it’d be better to focus on the thrilling,
“˜program-defining’ wins that are now becoming a weekly
occurrence for these Bruins.
Five games into an undefeated season, UCLA already has two
victories over opponents that entered the Rose Bowl ranked. It can
attribute two wins to come-from-behind drives in the waning moments
of the fourth quarter, a feat no one on the current roster could
lay claim to before this season.
“I used to be the guy who couldn’t get it done in
the fourth quarter,” quarterback Drew Olson said.
“It’s pretty cool to come back and lead your team. It
shows character.”
It seems as though each and every week, Bruin fans are being
treated to increasingly stylish drama, so I asked Olson whether it
was only a matter of time before Justin Medlock kicked a
game-winning field goal on the final play. He didn’t seem too
keen on the idea.
“I don’t really want to come back. I don’t
enjoy it,” Olson said. “I enjoy the win. I want to have
success early. I want to put up points early. I don’t want to
win like this every week. I don’t think I can handle it.
These games are not fun for me.”
Olson acknowledged how drained he felt after the game, which is
understandable considering his own defense was putting just as much
pressure on him as Cal’s. I warned him that if he keeps up
these kinds of comebacks, though, it might result in growing
complacency among the defense.
“We don’t want them to get in that mentality,”
Olson responded politely. “We’ll do what they need us
to do.”
On Saturday, the defense placed Olson in some pretty trying
circumstances. But it reconciled itself on Cal’s final
possession, and the wild standing ovation it received at the end
was fitting of the spectacular show that had just been put on.
It was a kind of fanfare the Rose Bowl hadn’t seen since
the late 1990s. The Bruins don’t like bringing up the past,
but fans have been clamoring for a return to an era like the one
led by quarterback Cade McNown. Sure, it’d be nice if the
defense completely shut down the opposition, but that would take
away the circus element that has made UCLA games so fun this
year.
The big-play capabilities on offense and special teams, coupled
with the missed tackles on defense, has this year shaping up more
and more like the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
There’s no question UCLA can erase two touchdown deficits.
There’s no doubt it can prevail in the final minutes of a
thrilling contest. And there’s no mistaking that excitement
in Westwood has returned and continues to grow each week.
Late Saturday night, I received a voicemail from a friend
telling me that Olson was the second coming of McNown. I
couldn’t tell if he was inebriated, but I wasn’t about
to call back and rationalize why I thought differently.
Particularly since my rationale about UCLA football had already
been proven wrong earlier that night.
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu with how many punt
returns Maurice Drew will have for touchdowns by the end of the
year.