It was a scene that has become all too common for the UCLA football team recently.
Near the end of the second quarter and trailing just 21-14, the Bruin defense had the California offense pinned on its own seven-yard line.
Then, when it seemed as if the Bruins would be able to force a Cal punt, Cal running back Jahvid Best broke some Bruin tackles, made others miss and pulled away from everyone, resulting in a 93-yard touchdown run that gave the Golden Bears a 28-14 lead.
Best’s run, the third-longest run in Cal history, was part of a 35-point onslaught the Golden Bears poured on the Bruin defense in the first half of Saturday’s 45-26 loss for UCLA.
“It was a rough first half,” senior linebacker Reggie Carter said. “It was like a four-round fight, and the first two rounds we got our ass whooped. We got punched.”
The Bruin defense allowed 377 total yards in the first half, putting the Bruins into a hole they could not dig themselves out of.
“Thirty-five points in the first half was not something that I anticipated,” UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said.
In the past three weeks, in all UCLA losses, the defense has shown a few holes.
First there is the poor tackling. Best’s run was largely a result of missed UCLA tackles, as was Oregon running back LaMichael James’ 50-yard run in the first quarter of last week’s 24-10 loss to the Ducks.
“We do tackling drills at practice but then it’s like, how much can you really get in practice unless you want to knock the piss out of each other like all day when you got a game the next week?” Carter said.
Carter added that players learn how to tackle as kids in Pop Warner and that players are taking bad angles on plays.
Another problem for the Bruins was defending against the big play. On the first drive of the game, Cal running back Shane Vereen gained 42 of his 154 yards on a touchdown run that gave the Golden Bears an early 7-0 lead.
Then there were two big pass plays from Cal quarterback Kevin Riley, one a 43-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Marvin Jones and the other a 51-yard touchdown strike to Best.
“We’re still a good defense, we just didn’t make plays today, and it showed in the first half,” Carter said.
Offense struggles to punch it in
One week after scoring just 10 points and gaining 211 yards, the UCLA offense rebounded with a 26-point, 448-yard performance.
While the Bruins showed a marked improvement from last week against Oregon, they were still unable to come away with touchdowns, instead settling for four field goals from kicker Kai Forbath.
In the second quarter down 28-14, the Bruins drove 56 yards to the Cal 13-yard line but were unable to score, settling for a field goal that trimmed the lead to 28-17.
In the third quarter down 38-23 with a chance to cut it to a one-score game with a touchdown, the Bruins drove 50 yards to the Cal 17-yard line and were unable to convert on a third-and-eight.
“Today was a case of down in the redzone as an offense and not able to execute plays in there even though I think that they were there to be made,” Neuheisel said.
In his second game back since missing two games with a fractured jaw, quarterback Kevin Prince looked more comfortable, completing 21 of 41 passes for 311 yards and one interception. While he admitted that he felt much more comfortable against Cal than he did against Oregon, he emphasized that the offense left some points on the field.
“It’ll happen. Just like you saw today, we started making bigger plays on offense,” Prince said. “Those things, they’ll come. We’re not really discouraged by it, we’re just going to keep on working, and those plays will come in the redzone.”
For sophomore wide receiver Taylor Embree, it’s simply a matter of making plays.
“That’s all there really is,” Embree said. “When our number’s called, we got to step up and make plays. I think we’ll get that done and individuals will work harder in practice this week so that when their number is called they’ll make plays and then we’ll be moving the ball more consistently.”
NOTES:
With the win, Cal became the first team in the past nine years between Cal and UCLA to win on the road”¦The win was Cal coach Jeff Tedford’s first win in Los Angeles as coach of the Golden Bears”¦Best’s 93-yard touchdown run was the longest of his career.