TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; As quarterback Drew Olson sat in the locker
room staring blankly into space, broken and dejected, it was all he
could do to muster an explanation.
Olson knew it was his four interceptions that helped contribute
to one of the Bruins’ most painful losses in recent memory.
But there was no way for him to give anything more than a simple
clarification.
“It was four shitty throws and decisions,” he
said.
Olson’s career-high four interceptions might have been the
only blemishes in UCLA’s 42-point offensive outburst Saturday
at Arizona State.
Particularly costly was his last pick, which came in the final
five minutes and allowed the Sun Devils to tack on a field goal to
increase their lead to six.
“I feel like I let the team down on four plays,”
Olson said. “We win that game easily if we don’t throw
four interceptions. Those are all on me, 100 percent. I’ll be
critical of myself more than anybody, and it’s a shitty
feeling.”
Aside from the interceptions, it was one of Olson’s better
games. He set a new career-high with 325 passing yards, completing
30 of 45 attempts and involving 10 different Bruin receivers.
Still, this will probably be a game Olson hopes to forget.
“(I’m going to tell him) that I love him, and I
believe in him,” offensive coordinator Tom Cable said.
“Next week we’re going to beat Stanford.”
Clearly, Olson’s performance wasn’t the defining
factor in the Bruins’ late-game collapse, where UCLA lost an
11-point lead in the last seven minutes of the game. The Bruin
defense can easily shoulder much of the blame.
Had Olson not thrown his final interception, UCLA would have
only needed a field goal from kicker Justin Medlock, who is 9-for-9
on the season.
“(Olson) had some bad decisions you would like to have
back,” Tom Cable said. “But on the other hand, he had
some unbelievable throws too.”
Olson’s three other picks came in the first half and were
all within ten minutes of each other, two in consecutive
possessions.
The first was intended for receiver Craig Bragg, but safety
Emmanuel Franklin keyed into Olson’s intentions and picked
off the pass.
But the next two picks were particularly troubling for UCLA
because they came during a time when the Bruins defense was playing
relatively well and had forced the Sun Devils into three-and-out
situations twice in a row.
The third pick, a late pass to tight end Marcedes Lewis, was
returned for 28 yards by linebacker Justin Burks and resulted in
another ASU touchdown.
“That’s the thing with the quarterback,” Cable
said. “The last two weeks he throws eight touchdowns.
Everyone wants to jump on his shoulders and say he’s got it.
But he goes out and struggles today and everybody wants to blame
him and he probably wants to blame himself. There were 10 other
guys out there with him.”