Monday, November 4, 1996
FOOTBALL:
UCLA’s initial dominance over Stanford ends in defeat due to
last-minute misplaysBy Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Bruins were seeing red all day Saturday.
First, during the game, UCLA saw the Cardinal jerseys swarming
all over them. Then the Bruins took a final look at the scoreboard
… Stanford 21, UCLA 20.
As the clock ticked down in the final seconds of a disastrous
two-minute drill, UCLA watched all of its bowl hopes dwindle away.
In a game nobody thought the Bruins could lose, they did.
And it was all because of one reason.
"(Stanford) made the plays when they needed to, and we didn’t
make the plays," head coach Bob Toledo said.
Never was this more evident than in the closing minutes of the
game. With UCLA (3-5, 2-3 Pac-10) clinging to a 20-14 lead with
5:36 remaining, Stanford took possession of the ball on their own
20-yard line. The Cardinal (3-5, 2-3) proceeded to move the ball
down the field with apparent ease, the drive culminating on a
10-yard pass from Cardinal quarterback Chad Hutchinson to Brian
Manning in the left corner of the end zone.
The drive lasted 10 plays, leaving less than a minute remaining
in the game. Only once in the drive were the Bruins able to force a
third down, and when they did, a missed tackle allowed Hutchinson
to scramble for the first down.
"We just didn’t step up and stop them and make plays," junior
cornerback Javelin Guidry said.
Neither did the Bruin offense. Struggling all night, it saved
its worst for the end. Taking over at their own 22 yard line with
51 seconds remaining, the Bruins had a legitimate shot at putting
themselves in field goal range.
However, the team’s youth and inexperience shined through in one
of the worst two-minute drills in recent memory.
In a span of 51 seconds, the Bruins failed to use two of their
timeouts, dropped a pass, and were penalized twice; once for an
illegal snap, and another time for having too many men on the
field. And all the while, precious seconds ticked off the
clock.
On the second play of the drive, Cade McNown scrambled for a
first down, stopping the clock temporarily. However, 28 seconds ran
off the clock before the Bruins could get off another play.
Before the Bruins realized what was happening, they were forced
to resort to a desperation play. McNown’s final hail mary pass was
intercepted by Josh Madsen, putting a merciful end to the game and
any postseason aspirations the Bruins once possessed.
"All I can say is that it was the first time we’ve had to deal
with a situation like that this year, and I guess it showed,"
junior tailback Skip Hicks said. "We work on it a lot in practice,
but I guess in the game situation, there’s the mental part of it,
and we didn’t do the job."
UCLA started off the game much better than they concluded it,
dominating the first quarter.
UCLA failed to score on its opening drive, but after stopping
Stanford on three plays, the Bruins went on a long scoring
drive.
Among the plays in the 8-play, 52-yard drive was the "Swinging
Gate" Â another one of Toledo’s trick plays. With all of the
offensive linemen standing to the left of him, McNown snapped the
ball directly to Jim McElroy, who ran for 17 yards and a first
down.
They eventually took a 7-0 lead on a Skip Hicks touchdown. Hicks
took a handoff at the Stanford 5-yard line, and ran right into the
thick of the Cardinal defense. However, Hicks was able to reverse
his direction, break a tackle, and sprint back across the field. He
outran the Stanford defense and scored near the left pylon in the
end zone.
The touchdown seemed to give the Bruins momentum, as the defense
immediately went right after Hutchinson. UCLA would eventually sack
Hutchinson five times on the afternoon.
On Stanford’s first two drives, the Bruins held them to a single
yard of total offense, and on the third drive Andy Colbert
intercepted a Hutchinson pass.
The Bruins held control of the ball for over 12 minutes of the
first period. But the complete domination could have been the cause
of the downfall of the team.
"Early on we played pretty good, and I think after we played
well after the first couple of drives, then all of a sudden it was
easy," Toledo said. "And I think sometimes when it’s easy early,
especially when it’s against a team you’re supposed to beat,
there’s almost a natural letdown. So, I don’t think it was the end
of the game, I think it was toward the end of the first quarter
that we stopped playing well."
Midway through the second quarter was when Stanford was finally
able to break through.
Running back Mike Mitchell took a pitch from Hutchinson and ran
10 yards for the score to conclude a 10-play, 56-yard drive that
tied the game 7-7.
After McNown threw one of his three interceptions on the day,
Stanford took advantage of a couple of Bruin defensive mistakes to
seize the lead.
UCLA was able to stop the Cardinal on a third-down play, but on
a call that was questionable at best on the following play, Javelin
Guidry was called for defensive holding. The play gave Stanford a
first down.
Two plays later, Hutchinson connected with Troy Walters for a
50-yard touchdown pass. Bruin cornerback Glenn Thompkins got turned
around and fell into the Stanford sideline on the play, allowing
Walters to sprint untouched down the sideline for the 14-7 halftime
lead.
Although UCLA fought its way back to a 20-14 advantage early in
the fourth quarter, the Bruin offense continued to struggle. Their
one second-half touchdown was the result of a broken play in which
McNown had to scramble before finding tailback Keith Brown behind
the Cardinal secondary for a 37-yard touchdown strike and a 17-14
Bruin lead.
Placekicker Bjorn Merten added two second-half field goals, but
these were due solely to good field position at the start of each
drive. In those two drives, UCLA gained only 25 and nine yards,
respectively.
Skip Hicks finished with 94 yards rushing on 26 carries, while
McNown was only 14-of-34 for 156 yards.
"Offensively, we just didn’t run the ball real well," Toledo
said. "And Cade obviously struggled tonight. He didn’t play well at
all. Some of the receivers dropped some balls that probably should
have been caught, but (McNown) has obviously got a lot to learn
like all of the rest of us."
"It’s a bad loss because we were finally getting a little
respect and were supposed to win," Hicks said.
As a result of the loss, the Bruins fell into a tie for sixth
place along with Stanford and Arizona. Although a bowl berth
remains mathematically possible (a team is required to win six
games to earn a bowl berth), the Bruins’ chances are about as great
as the chance of a Stanford victory over UCLA.
WYNN RUJIRAVIRIYAPINYO
Stanford’s Alistair White (#26) intercepts a Cade McNown pass
intended for UCLA’s Jim McElroy (#85) at the end of the first half
of UCLA’s 21-20 loss.