In his last home game of an embattled career, senior quarterback
Drew Olson’s playing days at the Rose Bowl culminated with a
game that placed him atop the UCLA record books.
By throwing for 510 yards and five touchdowns against the
Arizona State Sun Devils, he broke Cade McNown’s single
season passing touchdown record with two games remaining,
But Olson’s eye-popping numbers, both from
Saturday’s game and the entire season, are due in part to the
playmaking abilities of a wide receiving corps that makes short
slants and screen passes into long touchdowns.
On the first play of the game, Olson threw a five-yard slant to
junior wide receiver Joe Cowan that is usually good for anywhere
from five to 10 yards.
But Cowan, who saw the Sun Devil safeties cheating up near the
line of scrimmage expecting a running play, streaked past the leaky
defense. Cowan saw nothing but daylight in front of him and ran 86
yards for the touchdown, giving Olson the new UCLA record of 26
touchdowns, which he would reset again on the next series and three
more times throughout the night.
“Drew threw to Joe,” running back Maurice Drew said.
“At first I thought he was going to get tackled, and then he
broke it. I tried to catch up with him, but Joe’s a fast guy;
he’s too fast for me.”
On the next offensive series for UCLA, Olson threw to sophomore
running back Chris Markey on a screen pass that turned into a
56-yard touchdown.
After just one quarter of play, Olson had 295 yards and three
touchdowns on only eight completions.
“Shoot, they helped a lot,” Olson said. “They
took short passes and made a huge difference with them. There were
a couple of drops, but they were going to be some pretty tough
catches.”
His favorite target of the day was once again senior tight end
Marcedes Lewis, who had seven receptions for 108 yards and two
touchdowns. Lewis is leading the team in receptions, yards, and
touchdown catches.
“We’ve been on the same page all year,” Lewis
said. “Summer and spring, we were working with each other,
and it’s all paying off. Honestly, today’s game is just
a complement to how he’s been playing all season.”
Lewis and the receivers also helped Olson with tough catches. On
the touchdown to sophomore wide receiver Brandon Breazell in the
third quarter, Olson threw a fade pass that nearly pulled Breazell
out of bounds. After a review, Breazell was shown to have slid his
entire leg through the end zone, giving Olson his fourth touchdown
of the game.
On a play late in the fourth quarter, Olson threw behind Lewis
and it appeared as if it was going to be a sure interception.
Lewis, however, turned around, reached over the defender’s
shoulders and stole the ball out of his grasp. And on a touchdown
late in the first quarter, Lewis was able to keep his feet in
bounds on a throw to the front corner of the end zone.
Following last week’s loss to Arizona, which dropped UCLA
from the ranks of the unbeaten, the pressure was on the
Bruin’s offense to get moving sooner. But not all of the work
fell on the senior quarterback.
“Everything’s not on Olson’s shoulders,”
Lewis said. “The whole team came out with the mentality not
to feel the pain of a loss again.”