PULLMAN, Wash. “”mdash; This time, it was different.
They didn’t get the fake punt when they needed to. They
didn’t get the fourth down conversion when they needed it.
And they didn’t have the home crowd on their side, instead
playing in front of 35,000 screaming Cougar fans.
Still, the Bruins beat the odds and continued their string of
improbable victories with a 44-41 overtime victory over Washington
State at Martin Stadium on Saturday night.
“What can I say; what a great effort,” UCLA coach
Karl Dorrell said. “We made our share of mistakes today, but
in the end, all I can take is the result.”
Saturday’s game was the third straight in which the Bruins
faced a double-digit deficit in the second half and came back to
win.
The Bruins entered the fourth quarter down 17 points and were on
their own 4 yardline for their final drive with 4:52 left in the
game.
On that drive, quarterback Drew Olson drove the Bruins 96 yards
down the field, culminating with a 9-yard touchdown pass to wide
receiver Marcus Everett with 44 seconds left.
The score tied the game at 38 and the Bruins would go on to a
victory with a Maurice Drew 1-yard touchdown in the first
overtime.
“We just kept believing the entire time,” Everett
said. “We knew that if the defense got us back the ball, we
would score. We knew they couldn’t stop us.”
After the Drew touchdown, the Cougar defensive linemen were left
stunned, looking at the ground and wondering what just happened.
The emotion on the Bruin sideline was quite the opposite as players
rushed the field, knowing exactly what kind of difficulty they had
just overcome.
“We are just so ecstatic right now,” running back
Chris Markey said. “We just know that we can’t be beat
if we are on the top of our game.”
The win now gives the Bruins (6-0, 3-0 Pac-10) their best start
since 2001 and their first victory over the Cougars (3-3, 0-3)
since 1998. It was the first time UCLA beat Washington State on the
road since 1993.
With the win, the Bruins moved four spots from No. 12 to No. 8
in the Associated Press poll, as they are only one of seven
remaining undefeated teams in the nation.
“This is what we talked about at the beginning of the
season,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “We want to be
recognized on the national scene.”
In the game, UCLA tied the school record for the largest
comeback at 21 points, trailing the Cougars 21-0 and 28-7 at two
different points, and Olson established a career high with 338
yards passing.
“I guess we’re getting good at these fourth-quarter
comebacks,” Olson said. “It’s not something I
want to get used to, but heck, I’ll take the victory any
day.”
Olson also tied a school record with five touchdown passes. For
a while, however, it looked as if those passes would have little
relevance.
Cougar running back Jerome Harrison, who finished the game with
34 carries for 260 yards, had 182 yards rushing and two touchdowns
by halftime while UCLA’s defense seemed to have no
answer.
The Cougars stormed out to a 28-14 halftime lead, and it took a
talk by UCLA offensive coordinator Tom Cable to get the
Bruins’ defense to respond in the second half.
“I just told the guys to start playing for each
other,” Cable said. “We (the offense) go against them
in practice every day and we knew they were a lot better than
that.”
After the speech, the Bruins’ defense looked like an
entirely different unit. They limited the Cougars to 13 second-half
points, and Harrison, the Pac-10’s leading rusher, was
limited to 10 yards rushing after the third quarter.
“I don’t know what it is about our team,”
safety Jarrad Page said. “We just seem to step up in the
second half when we need to and make the big plays.”
In Saturday’s game, the Bruins’ defense allowed zero
fourth-quarter points, the third straight game in which the
Bruins’ defense clamped down in the clutch.
In fact, in the fourth quarter of those three games, the defense
allowed a total of three points, while the Bruins’ offense
combined for a total of 50.
“When the defense keeps getting the ball back to us like
that, you can’t ask for anything more,” Lewis said.
“We rallied around them tonight.”
Lewis, a preseason All-American who disappeared in last
week’s game against Cal with only one catch, was one of the
big reasons for the Bruins’ fourth-quarter resurgence.
Lewis made two catches on the Bruins’ final fourth-quarter
drive and finished with five catches for 66 yards, including two
touchdown receptions (one in the fourth quarter).
“It’s such an advantage to have a big target like
Marcedes out there,” Olson said. “That’s the
beauty of our team. We have so many weapons that we can go to.
Marcedes is just one of them.”
Besides Lewis, there were a number of players who stepped up,
including junior wide receiver Joe Cowan, who had a career game
with six catches for 73 yards, and running back Drew, who once
again had a big game with 78 receiving yards and 193 all-purpose
yards.
It was Drew’s 45-yard touchdown reception in the third
quarter that brought the Bruins to 28-21 and kept them within
striking distance.
“We knew that if we just kept chipping and chipping
away,” Drew said, “we would eventually have a chance to
tie and win the game.”
And win the Bruins did, as Drew was responsible for all but one
yard of the Bruin’s game-winning drive in overtime.
After Saturday’s victory, the Bruins now return home to
face former UCLA quarterback Matt Moore and conference rival Oregon
State, who defeated Cal on the road on Saturday.
For one day, at least, Dorrell did not want to worry about
Moore’s return, preferring to step back and enjoy the roller
coaster game that finished in sweet relief.
“It was a great comeback, one for the ages,” Dorrell
said. “But more importantly, it was a great day for UCLA
football.”