This was the one to win.
Damn, this was the one to win.
Saturday was really the best opportunity that UCLA football had left, with the Bruins up 10-0 at home against Arizona State and needing one more win to become bowl eligible.
Now sitting at 5-5, 4-3 Pac-10, the Bruins have two opportunities left for that sixth win.
The first one comes at home against a No. 2 Oregon team that is absolutely on fire right now. While this has been the season of the upset and I already put my foot in my mouth with the Cal game, UCLA will not beat Oregon.
That leaves a road game at No. 11 USC that the Bruins would need to win in order to extend the season.
That is a very tall order.
For the Bruin seniors, filling that order means even more. Getting a win in the last two games of the regular season not only gives them one more bowl game but lets them go out on a high note.
Otherwise, their last memories of UCLA football will be a five-game losing streak that took them from the top of the conference to bowl ineligibility.
“I know what I’m talking about, to my seniors, the guys that I’ve been here with for four and five years,” defensive end Bruce Davis said. “We can’t go out like this, on a losing streak like this. I don’t want to look back in 20 years from now and say, “˜Well, we lost all these games at the end of the year.'”
Which takes me back to Saturday’s game. The Bruins came out strong and surprised a lot of people with a first-half score that had them not only leading but shutting out their opponents.
The offense played very conservatively, which makes a lot of sense. Quarterback ““ which I almost want to put in quotations ““ Osaar Rasshan used his legs very well in a playbook that seemed to limit how much actual passing he was going to have to do.
It worked well. No big mistakes for most of the game. It was a very strange sight on third-and-long to see him taking the ball for a quarterback sneak that obviously had no chance of getting the first down, but I understand. For most of the game Rasshan did nothing to lose the game, while defense and special teams did a heck of a lot to win it.
“We figured that if we stepped up on special teams, we could make a way to win the game,” wide receiver Terrence Austin said. “I think that we did pretty well on special teams, but things didn’t fall the way that we wanted them to.”
The big problems came late for UCLA. While the offensive strategy the Bruins employed worked for a lot of the game, it was not enough when it came down to it late in the game. The Bruins needed to drive the field with some urgency and use an air attack, and it just wasn’t how the team was set up to play. Rasshan’s only interception came late in the game when the Bruins were trying to drive.
And then the field goals. The Bruins lost by four. Get rid of the ASU field goal made possible by the Bruce Davis penalty and they lost by one.
In several instances the Bruins were within kicker Kai Forbath’s extended range, and they chose not to kick.
The punts turned out very well for the Bruins, but the points would have helped a lot more.
They were so close. This was their game and it slipped away.
Now the mountain is steep and rocky for the Bruins to become bowl eligible.
If you are scared that beating USC at the Coliseum is UCLA’s best shot left at a victory, e-mail Gordon at bgordon@media.ucla.edu.