PALO ALTO “”mdash; For the fourth time this season, the Bruins
have done the improbable. Their backs were more than just up
against the wall ““ the wall was beginning to crumble, and
UCLA looked to be tumbling down with it.
They could have folded at any moment. UCLA’s offense was
horrendous and quarterback Drew Olson’s arm seemed to go
awry. The Bruins could have called it quits, but they didn’t
““ despite trailing 24-3 with 8:26 remaining in the final
period of play.
Facing a three-touchdown deficit, equal to its biggest of the
season, UCLA’s resilience kicked in during the fourth quarter
as the Bruins scored 21 points, tying a school record for the
largest comeback victory, and eventually winning the game in
overtime.
“This is the best comeback out of the four,” said
Olson, who completed 14 of 19 passes in the fourth quarter for 183
yards and one touchdown.
“When you get so many I guess you have to (rate them) now.
I mean, wow. We played horrible football for three quarters;
really, three and half quarters we didn’t play. It’s
unbelievable; there was no doubt.”
The Bruins utilized a no-huddle offense in the fourth quarter to
amass 200 yards of total offense and three touchdowns, sending the
game into overtime.
The Bruins’ fourth-quarter heroics began on their own
35-yard line. What started out as a suffocating Stanford defense
soon became nothing more than gaping holes through which Olson was
able to find open receivers. He twice found junior running back
Maurice Drew open on screen passes for a pair of 11-yard catches in
the middle of the field. After six complete passes by Olson, Drew
capped off the drive with a 6-yard rushing touchdown with 7:04
remaining in the game.
“We know we’re better than that,” said senior
tight end Marcedes Lewis, who had three receptions for a total of
39 yards. “You know you’re better than that, and you
stall and stall. We were playing at their pace. (But) when we went
to the two-minute hurry-up offense, it was all over.”
The Bruins got the ball back with 5:17 remaining and in just
three passes ““ one to Drew (22 yards), one to sophomore
receiver Marcus Everett (19), and the eventual 31-yard right-corner
lob to junior receiver Joe Cowan ““ UCLA slashed the
Cardinal’s lead to one touchdown, 24-17. The drive took just
34 seconds.
In what may have seemed like deja vu, Olson once again
engineered a drive that put the Bruins in position to send the game
into overtime.
UCLA staved off two potential momentum-halters in its final
drive. One was on a third-and-five possession, but Olson found a
streaking Lewis for 20 yards down the middle of the field. In a
fourth-and-two situation on Stanford’s 6-yard line, Olson
found Cowan in motion for the first down, and Drew finished the
drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
“We don’t ever doubt ourselves,” Drew said.
“The (offensive) line did a great job. They came out of
halftime and said enough is enough, and they did what they could to
help get the receivers a chance to get open. Drew (Olson) was just
saying, “˜Get me a little bit of time. Just a little bit more
time.'”
And in the time the Bruins had, they squeezed out every point
they could.