Defensive tackle Brigham Harwell knew that if the UCLA football team was to have any chance to beat No. 5 USC on Saturday, the Bruins would need to play a perfect game.
The offense could not afford to turn over the ball as often as it had in recent games.
The defense could not suffer any breakdowns and would need to come away with some crucial takeaways.
Special teams would need to be a factor and help to win the field position battle.
On Saturday at the Rose Bowl, the chance to play that perfect game was undone by costly Bruin penalties on defense that extended USC drives, amounting to a 28-7 loss to the Bruins’ archrivals.
“It was the first time all year we had all these personal fouls, and it’s ridiculous,” Harwell said. “It’s a rivalry game and high emotions. It was a tough loss for us, and the penalties definitely cost us.”
The Bruins (4-8, 3-6 Pac-10) committed 11 penalties for a total 117 yards on the day. In a game in which the Bruins knew they had to play conservatively on offense and hope to create scoring chances on defense, the penalties were too much for the Bruins to overcome.
There was the roughing the kicker penalty on redshirt sophomore defensive end David Carter after the Bruins forced a Trojan punt midway through the second quarter that gave USC (11-1, 8-1) another set of downs, a drive that ended in a two-yard touchdown run by junior tailback Stafon Johnson for a 21-7 lead.
There was an illegal helmet contact penalty committed by redshirt freshman linebacker Akeem Ayers on third down in the first series of the third quarter. The next play, USC redshirt junior quarterback Mark Sanchez found senior wide receiver Patrick Turner for an 18-yard touchdown and a 28-7 advantage.
Add a closely contested roughing the passer call on sophomore defensive tackle Brian Price, and it was an inopportune time for the Bruins to commit a season-high in penalties.
“‘SC’s a good, good team, where if you give them that many shots and that many opportunities when you do hold them, that’s just going to be too much to amount over,” junior cornerback Alterraun Verner said.
Following the game, both players and coaches talked about the incredible emotions that a big rivalry game brings up. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said that while normally he would “go crazy” after a game in which his unit committed so many penalties, he said he would not after this one given the situation.
While redshirt junior linebacker Reggie Carter said it was nice to see the high level of competition out of the defense, he added that the team must learn not to let it hinder its performance.
“You love the aggressiveness, but you’ve got to try to not to hurt yourself with penalties,” Carter said. “We hurt ourselves a lot today.”
USC OFFENSE WINS BATTLE OF STRENGTHS: Heading into the game, one of the more interesting matchups was the battle between a high-powered USC passing game against a stout UCLA secondary.
The Trojans came into the game with the second-best passing offense in the Pac-10 (245.1 yards per game); the Bruins had the No. 2 pass defense in the conference, allowing an average of 158.5 yards per game.
Yet on Saturday, Sanchez and the Trojan passing attack won.
Sanchez completed 18 of 33 passes for 269 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. While the Bruins tried to disrupt Sanchez’s rhythm with a pass rush generated by defensive tackles Harwell and Price, Sanchez was not sacked on the day and was able to find receivers open in the middle on crossing routes for significant gains.
“He had time, and he had time to wait,” Carter said. “He saw his open crossers, and he was hitting them, and those guys do a pretty good job of running after the catch.”
While the Bruins failed to record a sack, the defense was successful in pressuring and hitting the Trojan quarterback, who actually sat out a play in the third quarter after being hit and sported a large cut on his chin after the game.
“We could tell that he didn’t like getting hit, so my thing was getting to him and hitting him,” Price said. “I wanted a couple of sacks, but he was getting rid of the ball right when I was there.”
The inability to disrupt the passing game was just one part of a defensive performance in which the Bruins allowed 478 yards and 33 first downs.
While the final score of 28-7 was much closer than many expected ““ the Bruins came in as 33-point underdogs ““ players admitted after the game that they were not interested in moral victories.
“We flat out lost a game,” Harwell said. “We didn’t make the plays that we had to, and we didn’t execute on certain plays.”
BRUINS AND TROJANS MEET ON FIELD: Prior to kickoff to start the second half, a scene erupted at the Rose Bowl that brought the two teams together at midfield, jumping around, yelling at each other and trying to intimidate the others.
UCLA players said following the game that they felt disrespected by actions of the USC players dancing on their home field, so they decided to join them.
Harwell said that he was unfazed by the attempts of the Trojans to get underneath the Bruins’ skin. “We play between the lines, and all that hoorah-hoorah stuff doesn’t mean anything,” Harwell said. “We just want to play football.”
For Carter, it was all about pride.
“It’s OK to get excited on your sideline, but then it’s to the point when you feel disrespected because this is your home field,” Carter said. “We kind of just had to go to out there and participate with them, let them know that you’re not going to dance all over my field, and I’m just going to stand here. If anybody’s going to do it, I’m going to do it because it’s mine.”