It’s one thing to be good.
It’s something else entirely to be good and mad.
That’s the kind of situation the UCLA football team will
encounter Saturday when it travels to Berkeley to face No. 8
California.
The Bears (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) are a very good team, maybe even a
great team, coming off a tough loss to No. 1 USC last Saturday in a
game they could have won.
Cal dominated almost every facet of the game against the
Trojans, yet the Bears return to their Bay Area lair with nothing
to show for their troubles. So it’s understandable that the
Bruins (4-1, 2-0) expect the Bears to come out Saturday as a team
on a mission, and maybe even a little angry.
“They’ll probably play with a little chip on their
shoulder like they should have won that game,” junior
quarterback Drew Olson said. “I think they should have won
that game. They dominated them pretty well.”
Dominate certainly seems like an appropriate word, as Cal piled
up 424 yards of total offense to USC’s 205. The Bears managed
28 first downs to USC’s 12. But the numbers that matter, of
course, are 23 and 17: the final score.
“I expect to see them pissed off, because they’ve
got a lot of pride,” UCLA tailback Maurice Drew said.
“I know their defense is going to be upset, because their
defense stopped “˜SC. They felt that they won the
game.”
The Bruins figure to have their hands full on both side of the
ball, simply because both Cal’s offense and defense have been
so good. In fact, the Bears lead the Pac-10 in total offense (510
yards per game) and total defense allowed (248 yards per game). On
paper, the Bears don’t appear to have any weaknesses.
“They’re a good football team,” UCLA coach
Karl Dorrell said. “They’re well coached, they have the
best defense and offense in the conference right now, and they look
that way on tape.
“I would bet that they’re probably angry, and
they’ll want to get themselves in the win column
again.”
With junior quarterback Aaron Rodgers standing behind center for
the Bears, it would be hard to bet against them. Rodgers has been
phenomenal this season, completing 78 percent of his passes for 881
yards and seven touchdowns. At one point against the Trojans,
Rodgers had completed 23 consecutive passes.
“You’re not going to shut down this
quarterback,” Dorrell said. “What we have to do is shut
down big play capabilities and play good, solid defense and make
them earn anything they can get.”
That could prove to be a tall order for the Bruins’
defense, which hasn’t exactly been superb this season. UCLA
ranks last in the conference in rushing defense, allowing an
astounding 250 rushing yards per game, a weakness that could be
exploited by talented Cal tailback J.J. Arrington, who leads the
Pac-10 in rushing yards per game with 145.
But it’s unfair to simply write the Bruins off.
UCLA has won four straight, albeit against teams not nearly as
talented as the Bears.
Still, a win’s a win.
“We’re going to come out and challenge them,
regardless of how they feel,” Drew said. “We’re
just going to go out there and play as hard as we can and do what
we have to do to come out of there with a victory.”
That will probably start with Drew and the running game. Though
UCLA’s rushing attack was shut down in last weekend’s
37-17 win over Arizona, it is still the team’s most dangerous
weapon. The Bruins average 241 yards per game on the ground, and
Drew has topped the 200-yard mark several times this season.
And even if the running game is stopped, last weekend provided a
glimpse into the balanced offense the UCLA coaching staff speaks so
much about. Olson had his best game of the season, throwing for
four touchdowns, and tight end Marcedes Lewis had the best game of
his UCLA career, catching six passes for 99 yards and three
touchdowns.
Still, Cal is good, mad, and blessed with a long memory.
“(UCLA) beat us last year in a game we thought we should
have won,” Rodgers said. “We know we have to have a
good week to beat these guys.”
The Cal quarterback is speaking of last season’s thriller
at the Rose Bowl that saw Cal outplay the Bruins, only to lose
23-20 in overtime.
So the Bears have a lot to prove. They want to prove that they
shouldn’t have lost last week. They want to prove that they
shouldn’t have lost last year.
They want to prove that this Cal program is legit, even now that
leading receiver Chase Lyman is done for the season.
“I’m looking at it as they’re going to be very
fired up,” said UCLA linebacker Justin London, who will start
for the first time since Sept. 18. “We’re going to
their house. It’s a sold-out game. … It’s Cal versus
UCLA.”
“There’s already blood, and it’s already a
rivalry anyway.”