“Everyone was upset,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo
said Monday, two days after a 31-30 loss to Oregon that UCLA had
every opportunity to win. Yep. “The coaches were upset. The
players were upset. The fans were upset.” Yep.
“Understandably so.” Yep. “One play does not make
a game,” Toledo said of Chris Griffith’s 46-yard field
goal attempt with 1:52 remaining that could have won the game.
“One person is not responsible for the loss. There is at
least a handful of plays or instances that contribute to a
loss.” On that note, here is a look at what Toledo said about
the handful of things that went right, fistful of things that went
wrong, and armload of things that had Monday morning quarterbacks
calling for Toledo’s head.
The Good 1. 377 yards passing. 2. UCLA had two receivers with
100-yard games (Craig Bragg 230 yards, Tab Perry 126 yards). 3.
Redshirt freshman Tyler Ebell rushed for 116 yards on a team that
gave up 79 yards a game rushing. 4. Oregon had 14 possessions and
had to punt nine times. The Bad 1. The defense was out of position
on three of Oregon’s touchdowns. 2. Three interceptions. 3.
Four sacks. 4. Extra point blocked. 5. Oregon’s 79-yard punt
return for a touchdown. 6. On Keenan Howry’s 74-yard
touchdown catch, the defense lost contain on the quarterback and
the safeties came up, allowing Howry to blow by them. 7. The
intentional grounding penalty in the fourth quarter forced UCLA to
punt the football after getting within field goal range at the
Oregon 27.
The Ugly “Obviously when you lose a game, you’re
open to criticism,” Toledo said. “I understand that.
That goes with the territory. We made some costly mistakes.”
The fake field goal, the use of time-outs and the play-calling kept
columnists all over Southern California busy until today. Monday,
Toledo would not say he lost confidence in Griffith, but he
admitted last week’s blocked field goal and the earlier
blocked extra point were on his mind. “It was a 45-yard field
goal attempt, by no means a gimme,” Toledo said. “It
was my decision. The defensive rush guy saw (freshman tight end)
Marcedes (Lewis) and he ran over the top. If he had come up the
field like he had been, Marcedes would have gotten the first down,
might have scored a touchdown. I thought two touchdowns was better
than two scores at that point.” As for the play-calling on
the last drive, Toledo said that he was trying to get in better
field goal range. “Did I get conservative? Call it what you
want. I thought it was smart. I didn’t want to drop back and
get sacked or drop back and throw an interception,” he said.
It wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence in his quarterback and
offensive line, who had thrown three interceptions and given up
four sacks, respectively. On Ebell’s run on first-and-ten
from the Oregon 25, he was stuffed for a loss of one yard because
Paus was “dingy” and turned the wrong way on the trap.
“I had my head driven into the ground on the last
play,” Paus said. “We ran a trap play that I had no
idea what was going on.” On third down Paus overthrew a high
percentage pass to Bragg. “With all those things we were
still in a position to win that football game and we missed the
field goal,” Toledo said. “Today could have been an
awful lot different,” Paus said at Monday’s press
conference. “As a team we missed out on an opportunity. But
are we out of it? Completely, absolutely 100 percent not.”
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull; Injury report: Sophomore tailback Manuel
White is doubtful after suffering a hamstring pull at Oregon State.
Sophomore safety Ben Emanuel is questionable after sustaining a
neck stinger at Oregon State. He will not engage in contact drills
this week. Junior defensive tackle Rodney Leisle is out after foot
surgery. Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Ed Blanton is still
out with a sprained foot. Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull; Sophomore wide
receiver Craig Bragg was named offensive player of the game by the
coaches after catching nine balls for 230 yards. Senior middle
linebacker Marcus Reese led the team with nine tackles including
two for a loss and was named defensive player of the game. After a
day of special teams disasters, junior wide receiver Tab Perry, who
returned three kickoffs for 88 yards, was named special teams
player of the game. “¢bull;”¢bull;”¢bull; This week’s
captains for the Cal contest at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley are
all Northern California natives. The captains are Bragg (San Jose),
Ricky Manning Jr. (Fresno), Perry (Milpitas) and Marcus Reese (San
Jose).