Chants of “We are ND!” echoed through the hallways under the Rose Bowl while a deafening silence settled over the home team’s locker room, accentuated only by intermittent yells of frustration.
It was one of the worst home losses of the Karl Dorrell era ““ a 20-6 thumping by one of the worst teams in the country ““ and it had all ended with a twist of Ben Olson’s left knee.
The Bruins’ shot at offensive productivity, their chances of beating a winless Notre Dame team, and the idea that their embarrassing loss to Utah was just a fluke were all out the window in a matter of seconds.
Walk-on quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson was shelled in his first chance at a significant role after being brought in for the injured Olson in the first quarter. The offense turned the ball over six times with Bethel-Thompson at the helm.
“It’s the kind of game where Notre Dame played everything close to the vest and didn’t make any mistakes,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “They put some pressure on our offense, and our offense made some mistakes. Our defense played lights out. Offensively, we made too many mistakes ““ six turnovers off four interceptions and two fumbles. It’s hard to overcome those circumstances in any game.”
As 22-point favorites, the Bruins (4-2, 3-0 Pac-10) were expected to dominate the hapless Fighting Irish (1-5). Instead, the game was a dogfight from the start, even with Olson under center.
The Bruins were forced to punt on their first possession of the game and failed to capitalize on a first-and-goal situation their next trip down the field, settling for a field goal.
On the first play of their next drive, Olson was sacked by Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski as his left knee was twisted into the ground and he fumbled the ball. Notre Dame recovered and returned it to UCLA’s 2-yard line in what would prove to be the beginning of the end for the Bruins.
UCLA did manage a 49-yard field goal in the closing minutes of the first half on the most productive drive that the redshirt freshman Bethel-Thompson directed, but the offense broke down in the second half. In eight possessions after the break, the Bruins were picked four times, fumbled twice, punted once and failed to convert a key fourth-and-one early in the third quarter.
Within 50 seconds of game time near the end of the third, Notre Dame pulled down two touchdowns that proved to be more than enough to halt the struggling Bruin offense. One Bethel-Thompson interception set up the Irish on the Bruin two-yard line, which the Irish punched in three plays later for a touchdown. Then, Irish linebacker Maurice Crum took a Bethel-Thompson fumble into the end zone three plays later for a 20-6 lead.
Because of the offensive troubles, the Bruin defense was put into tough situations all day long. However, the three scoring drives they allowed were for a combined 24 yards and they continually stuffed the Notre Dame offense, giving up only 140 total yards on the game.
As for the efforts of the defense, their frustration was obvious.
“To go out there to hold that offense to less than 200 yards and lose? It’s a tough one to take,” senior defensive end Bruce Davis said. “
What might be tougher to take is the future of his team, which now has two weeks to put behind them a loss to a Notre Dame team that is at the bottom of the NCAA barrel.
“We need to learn from this loss, see what we did poorly and use it to motivate us,” redshirt senior Matt Slater said. “We have a lot of football left to play and if we don’t clean up our mistakes, it’s going to be a long way to go.
“We came out and fought. I know we didn’t take these guys for granted. I know we didn’t under-prepare, but I know we were ready to go. The biggest thing to take away is to see what the character of this team is ““ what type of leadership do we have on this team, what type of heart do we have. We’ll find that out in the coming weeks.”