Situational irony refers to the difference between expected results and actual results.
Essentially, what you thought would happen, what you were sure would happen, didn’t happen.
And in football, on any level, it’s expected that when a team makes five turnovers, it will lose.
Ironically, Saturday, the UCLA football team experienced the positive aspects of the rhetorical device.
Just two weeks ago, UCLA lost to Arizona despite five turnovers by the Wildcats. Well, fortune has reversed itself, as the Bruins squeaked past the Washington Huskies on Saturday, despite five offensive giveaways.
“We are going to look and see how we made all those mistakes and survived,” coach Rick Neuheisel said after Saturday’s win.
I asked myself the same question, Rick ““ how did UCLA pull that one out?
But in retrospect, if it weren’t for a plethora of avoidable mistakes on UCLA’s part, namely turnovers, the game should have been a blowout in favor of the Bruins.
Let’s review the turnover breakdown.
In the first quarter, after Washington knotted the game at seven, the Huskies kicked the ball off to usually sure-handed kick-returner Terrence Austin. But of course, with the Bruins’ luck, Austin fumbled the ball deep in UCLA territory, leading to a field goal for the Huskies.
Considering how easily and effectively quarterback Kevin Prince whisked the ball down the field on UCLA’s first drive, one has to think that the early cohesion established by the Bruin offense would have led to possibly another easy score.
Instead, the Huskies took a 10-7 lead.
Early in the second quarter, with the Bruins now leading 14-13, Prince threw an arrant pass across the middle that was intercepted by Washington cornerback Desmond Trufant. The Huskies once again converted the turnover into another three points, giving them a 16-14 lead.
On the very next UCLA drive, Prince regained his composure and drove the Bruins 60 yards to the Huskies’ 20-yard line. But after Prince was knocked out of the game, due to a cheap helmet-to-helmet hit by Washington linebacker Donald Butler, freshman quarterback Richard Brehaut fumbled on a blindsided hit, stalling the Bruins’ drive and negating another scoring opportunity right before the half.
At the beginning of the third quarter, with UCLA receiving the ball trailing 16-14, the Bruins gift-wrapped yet another turnover for the Huskies after tailback Johnathan Franklin fumbled on the 50-yard line.
Washington made UCLA pay once again for its mistakes, this time with a touchdown to stretch its lead to 23-14.
UCLA would score on its next drive, cutting the Huskies’ lead to two, 23-21. And after stopping the Huskies on their next possession, and then advancing the ball to the Washington 20-yard line on their next drive, the Bruins seemed ready to finally regain the lead.
Then, turnover number five.
Kevin Craft, now in for Brehaut, tossed the Bruins’ second interception of the game, to go along with three fumbles.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Neuheisel said. “There were some great things, things you can see vast improvement with. But we had far too many turnovers.”
After a stop on defense and yet another fumble by the Bruins, which they actually recovered for a change, UCLA’s best player Kai Forbath put in a field goal to give the Bruins a 24-23 lead, which would end up being the final score.
But you know what was most ironic about Saturday’s game? (We’re back to situational irony now, folks.) The fact that despite the Bruins’ five turnovers, which actually should have been six or seven, it was the lone turnover by the Huskies that sealed UCLA’s first Pac-10 victory on the season.
With about four minutes to go, and Washington driving, a pass to the sideline by Husky quarterback Jake Locker was tipped and then intercepted by none other than the fabulous Rahim Moore, who I like to call, “Mr. Right Place at the Right Time.”
So what’s the moral of the story? UCLA can’t expect to win games this way.
In fact, I hate to say they got a little lucky, but even coach Neuheisel understands that usually, the team that commits five turnovers is the team on the losing end.
“Those are the things that usually beat you in this conference,” Neuheisel said of the Bruins’ inability to protect the football.
But now is not the time to speak negatively, it’s a time to rejoice. UCLA football has won its first game in more than a month and its first in a deep and talented Pac-10 conference.
And after Saturday’s game, Neuheisel kindly asked those who ditched the Bruins’ bandwagon to hop back on.
At which point I said to myself, “Give me two in a row, and I’ll be driving that bandwagon, Rick.”
If you never jumped off the “Neuheisel Express Bandwagon,” e-mail Watson at bwatson@media.ucla.edu.