PALO ALTO “”mdash; Kai Maiava began walking toward the exit tunnel before the final whistle even blew.
During a time-out that simply prolonged the inevitable ““ UCLA’s first loss of the season ““ the redshirt sophomore center turned right, halted, looked up at the scoreboard and put his right hand on his hip as if acknowledging the frustration of defeat.
Then, his head sunk.
Fifteen minutes later, offensive coordinator Norm Chow found himself at a locked locker-room door that he needed to get into. A huge frown set over his indiscreetly irritated face. He didn’t need the added frustration. With that, he gave the door something between a slap and a slam, and moved on down to try the door at the other end.
The normally clipped Chow answered his first question with earnest honesty and a tone that felt full of genuine frustration.
“I’m awfully disappointed,” Chow said. “We were getting squared away. I thought we were ready to play ““ maybe, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
No one was shouting in anger or punching walls after the Bruins’ 24-16 loss to Stanford, but their disappointment in taking their first loss was evident, if not outwardly apparent.
UCLA (3-1) had had an extra bye week to prepare, the team had already upset Tennessee, and no current Bruin knew what it felt like to lose to the Cardinal. The Bruins hadn’t lost to Stanford (4-1) since 2004.
Sophomore safety Tony Dye, saw the Bruins’ previously undefeated record as an indication that the team still had a shot at what he called “huge goals” like a national championship.
Senior linebacker Reggie Carter, often outgoing and enthusiastic, sounded equally deflated. Cornered in by reporters at his locker, he sat only half-turned toward the journalists asking him questions about a stinging first loss.
“It hurts a lot,” Carter said. “We were looking forward to getting this victory, and then with two games at home, we were confident in getting those two. (The loss) definitely hits you in the face.”
From penalties that kept Stanford drives alive to a missed read here or there, most of the players offered a candid evaluation of their play, still smarting from their first defeat. The fact that the Bruins almost mustered a comeback didn’t make the loss any easier to swallow.
“I feel like there’s a lot of stuff we left on the table,” redshirt senior Kevin Craft said. “I think everything that we were doing was working the way it should, it’s just a matter of executing the little things to keep drives alive.”
Things won’t get any easier for UCLA in the coming weeks. As Carter alluded to, the Bruins have two home games on deck ““ but they are against Oregon and Cal, two teams that have been ranked in the top 25 for a majority of the season.
If the Bruins don’t correct their mistakes, and fast, the team that was riding so high at 3-0 may find themselves at 3-3 quite quickly.
“We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and keep trying to fix things,” coach Rick Neuheisel said.
“I don’t like the loss. I was hoping like heck and scratching and clawing to get to 4-0.”