CORVALLIS, Ore. “”mdash; The path from the field at Reser Stadium to the UCLA football team’s locker room took the Bruins up a hill and along a small street lined with Oregon State fans.
Trudging up the hill with his helmet off, engaged in a discussion with a teammate, was UCLA wide receiver Nelson Rosario. While making his way to the Bruins’ locker room inside the Oregon State basketball arena, one Oregon State fan saw Rosario and yelled, “Great game Rosario,” in a manner of genuine congratulations.
Thanks to Rosario, wide receiver Taylor Embree, quarterback Kevin Prince and the rest of the UCLA offense, the Bruins (3-5, 0-5 Pac-10) nearly escaped with their first Pac-10 victory of the season, a 26-19 thriller against the Beavers (5-3, 3-2) on Halloween night.
“Tough loss in that our guys really fought to get back into the game and had some chances to pull off a memorable one, especially in the midst of a tough losing streak and so forth,” UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. “But we did show life.”
The doubtful outcome of the game in the final seconds was unexpected, because at the start of the fourth quarter, the Bruins found themselves down 19-3.
Much like last week’s loss at Arizona, the Bruins were stagnant and ineffective on offense through the first three quarters, managing just 164 total yards.
That’s when things changed, and in the words of Rosario, Prince began trusting in his receivers to make plays.
The first one was a highlight-reel, one-handed catch along the sideline by Rosario, who stayed in bounds and ran 58 yards for a touchdown that cut the Oregon State lead to 19-11 with 8:39 left to play in the game.
“All I remember is putting one hand up and keeping my eyes on it, and it stuck,” said Rosario, who finished the game with 152 yards on six receptions, becoming the first Bruin receiver since Brandon Breazell in 2007 to have a 100-yard receiving game.
The second play came with 2:06 left in the game and the Bruins on Oregon State’s 7-yard line.
On fourth down, Prince dropped back to pass and put the ball up for Embree to out-jump Oregon State cornerback Tim Clark in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
After a successful two-point conversion, a game that seemed out of reach earlier in the quarter was all tied up.
“I think I just had a chance to make the play,” said Embree, who finished with 88 yards on five receptions. “He put the ball up there perfectly, and I was able to make a play on it.”
The ability of the wide receivers to make big plays was magnified in light of last week’s performance when there were a number of dropped balls by the Bruin wide receivers. Yet after the game, the wide receivers were adamant that they can be trusted in big-time situations.
“I don’t think he has a choice but to trust,” Rosario said. “We’re the only ones out there that got to catch the balls. It all falls within us, and we got to trust us now.”
For Prince, he always had trust in his receivers to make plays; it was simply the situation the Bruins found themselves in near the end of the game that facilitated that trust a bit more.
“We weren’t going to run the ball (while we were losing),” Prince said. “It was up to me and the receivers to make plays, and thankfully the line gave us enough time to do so, and I put the ball up and just let them go make plays.”
According to Prince, the focus for the Bruins on offense now is to start the game like they finished.
In the fourth quarter, the Bruins scored 16 points and amassed 210 yards after putting up just three points on 164 yards in the three previous quarters combined.
“I feel like we just got to come out better in the first half than we did in future games,” Prince said. “We just got to be more consistent. When I say that I’m really talking about myself. I can’t go from game to game and have ups and downs like this. I’ve got to be able to put games like this together.”
Embree agreed with his quarterback.
“I think today was really the first day that we as wide receivers had multiple opportunities to make plays like that,” Embree said. “It was a good confidence booster for the quarterbacks and receivers as a duo. But now we just got to do it every game and all game, not just at the end of the game.”