TUCSON, Ariz. “”mdash; There was nothing glamorous Saturday
night, as the Bruins drove off into the desert with their heads
held low and their tail between their legs; almost every aspect of
their demeanor read as if they had lost. Though they didn’t
lose to Arizona, everyone knew the night wasn’t a
victory.
The Bruins limped home with a 24-21 win over the last-place
Wildcats, barely escaping a terrible defeat. The narrow
victory highlighted severe problems for the team, most notably a
rush defense that yielded gaping holes and missed numerous
tackles.
Arizona rushed for a whopping 276 yards against the usually
stout Bruin defense, including 167 in the first half alone.
“It seemed like they knew exactly what we were going to
do,” defensive end Dave Ball said. “They ran right to
us and we didn’t tackle well at all so they got the good
plays, the first downs, and were able to score 21
points.”
UCLA started the game by allowing Arizona to drive 80 yards in
just six plays for a touchdown within the first three minutes. Most
of those yards came on the ground, including a 29-yard dash from
tailback Clarence Farmer on the Wildcats’ first play from
scrimmage.
Farmer, the Pac-10’s leading rusher in 2001, displayed the
same power and speed he had earlier in his career before falling
out of favor with former Arizona coach John Mackovic. For the
top-ranked defense in the conference, Arizona ““ who in the
past four games had only 198 rushing yards ““ presented an
unexpected challenge.
“Well, it’s not that I wasn’t expecting it,
but the times I saw them on film it wasn’t like their offense
was staggering,” Ball said. “This time was really
different, they came out with a lot of fire, in the first and
second half they came out there with their hair on fire and their
(running) backs were playing hard.”
Though Arizona was ranked last in total offense in the league
and the nation, the Bruin rush defense looked nothing like
it’s normally dominant self.
At one point in the second half, the Bruin defense seemed to
have Farmer trapped behind the line of scrimmage, but the elusive
player cut back toward the middle before reversing his field.
Dodging would-be UCLA tacklers, he picked up a first down on a play
that should have amounted to nothing.
Farmer finished with 122 yards rushing, and backup Michael Bell
added 94.
Arizona’s running backs spent so much time down field that
the Bruins’ leading tackler was none other than safety Ben
Emanuel, who tallied eight solo tackles in the game.
“I think we just broke down, maybe we didn’t come in
with our minds right and we should have,” linebacker Brandon
Chillar said. “They seemed to be throwing everything they had
at us. When we play better teams that can not happen.”