TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; To echo the words of UCLA coach Karl
Dorrell in the postgame press conference, it may not have been
pretty, but it was a win.
And it may have gotten the Bruins to a bowl.
UCLA’s 24-12 victory over Arizona State at Tempe gave the
Bruins the coveted sixth win needed to attain bowl eligibility and
also gave them their first road win of the year.
The Bruins put forth a performance that can be described
politely as inconsistent. UCLA averaged just 2.9 yards rushing, and
quarterback Pat Cowan threw for just 187 yards ““ although he
threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Brandon Breazell that
proved decisive.
“Offensively, we didn’t have much rhythm,”
Dorrell said. “But when we needed to make a play in the
fourth quarter, when we needed a score, it was good to see those
guys make a play. We did what it took to win the game.”
The win gave the Bruins the minimum requirement for bowl
eligibility, but with the way the Pac-10 has shaped up this year,
it might not be enough for a bowl game.
There are eight teams in the Pac-10 that are now bowl-eligible,
but there are only six bowl games affiliated with the Pac-10.
Still, the Bruins are taking the victory as if it assured them a
bowl.
“It was huge; it was huge,” wide receiver Junior
Taylor said. “Now we know we get to play another
game.”
And the game could not have been won without a resurgent
defense, which limited the Sun Devils to just four field goals on
Saturday.
Although Arizona State was able to move the ball between the two
20-yard lines, the UCLA defense proved stout enough to keep the Sun
Devils out of the end zone ““ even on an inch-line stand in
the second quarter.
“The defense played amazing,” linebacker Christian
Taylor said. “Sometimes we weren’t given the best of
field position, but we were keeping guys out of the end zone. At
the beginning of the game, (the Sun Devils) started to do what they
normally do, but we took it away.
“They had to mix it up. I think coach Walker had their
offensive coordinator a little rattled. So he was calling plays out
of character.”
ASU netted just 264 total offensive yards. Although UCLA managed
just 10 more yards, the Bruins did not turn the ball over.
Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter threw a crippling
interception to UCLA cornerback Trey Brown that was returned to the
Sun Devil’s 1-yard line at the end of the first quarter. The
Bruins punched it in for their second touchdown to put UCLA ahead,
14-3.
Carpenter struggled for most of the day, finishing with just 11
completions in 30 attempts.
“They ran the ball decently against us, but we covered
them pretty well,” Dorrell said. “They had one big play
in the passing game, and that’s it.”
The win is important to the Bruins for many reasons: It gives
them bowl eligibility, it gives them their first win on the road,
it was an emotional victory for a team that had to deal with the
death of former cornerback Marcus Cassel over the weekend, and it
builds momentum for the USC game in two weeks.
“This was big (to win before playing USC),” Junior
Taylor said. “Now we’re playing to beat our rival.
It’s very important for me to get a win. I want a win.
It’s been seven years.”
The Bruins are now riding a two-game winning streak. Modest
though the streak may be, it came on the heels of a near-disastrous
four-game losing streak that put the Bruins in the bottom half of
the Pac-10.
Although the Bruins do not want to look too far ahead, a win
over USC in two weeks could put to rest the memories of the
consecutive losses to Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington State and
Cal.
“That was a rough time,” Christian Taylor said.
“It was a rough month. You love to get a winning streak to
end the year. A four-game winning streak would be great.”
The Bruins could still finish as high as fourth in the Pac-10,
meaning they could still go to the Las Vegas Bowl, which is
allotted to the fourth-place Pac-10 team.