Arizona senior defensive end Ricky Elmore sacks sophomore quarterback Richard Brehaut on 3rd and 7 with 2:23 to go in the fourth quarter of UCLA’s 29-21 loss. Brehaut got the start in place of redshirt sophomore Kevin Prince, who will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. Brehaut threw for 228 yards on the day.
PASADENA “”mdash; When sophomore quarterback Richard Brehaut ran onto the field to start a late fourth-quarter drive, the Rose Bowl was buzzing. The Bruins had the ball, and a chance. In times like these, that’s something the team can be proud of.
But pride alone does not complete passes or score touchdowns, as the UCLA football team is well aware by this point.
A 29-21 defeat to No. 15 Arizona showed the fans in Pasadena a glimmer of hope, but not enough to make for a joyous postgame locker room or a revival of the high preseason expectations for this Bruin team.
“We’ve just got to execute better so that we can have a happy ending,” coach Rick Neuheisel said.
This was UCLA’s third straight loss, but also its most narrow defeat of the season.
“Effort-wise and toughness and all that, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the boys,” redshirt senior left tackle Micah Kia said. “We battled it to the end, but sometimes it’s not enough.”
Despite throwing for a season-high 228 yards and engineering some of the most exciting pass plays of the year for the Bruins, Brehaut could not put together a drive when the team needed it the most.
“Unfortunately when it came down to crunch time, on the third-down (and) fourth-down conversions, we couldn’t make that play that we needed to,” he said.
Trailing 26-21 with 3:14 left in the game, UCLA could have gone ahead with a score, but the Bruin offense stalled, failing to gain a first down on the possession.
Neuheisel decided to go for it on fourth and 11, but Brehaut’s pass to junior wide receiver Taylor Embree was deflected.
“We practice the two-minute (drill) every day,” offensive coordinator Norm Chow said. “We should be a little more effective than we were today.”
After the UCLA defense forced Arizona to take a quick field goal, the Bruins had another chance with the ball. UCLA was down eight points, enough to tie the game on the final drive. But Brehaut was sacked on his own 46-yard line, where the ball ““ and the game ““ went into Wildcat hands.
“There was just a little something missing in every play on those last two drives,” redshirt junior wide receiver Josh Smith said.
UCLA (3-5, 1-4 Pac-10) never held the lead on Arizona (7-1, 4-1) thanks to the Wildcats’ offense, especially in the first half. Arizona quarterback Matt Scott, filling in for injured starter Nick Foles, had 319 passing yards on the day and added 71 more on the ground. Running back Keola Antolin contributed 111 yards to Arizona’s offensive campaign.
However, UCLA managed to stay in the game with two tremendous passing plays in the second half.
Last in the conference in passing numbers, the Bruins aren’t known for their air game. It certainly didn’t help that they were without their top two wide receivers ““ the injured Nelson Rosario and the suspended Ricky Marvray.
But the ball that Brehaut threw to sophomore wide receiver Randall Carroll in the third quarter was a jab in the eye of that reputation.
The 68-yard touchdown pass play over the top of the defense electrified the crowd and rejuvenated the Bruin offense, which hadn’t scored in more than a quarter. It was the longest UCLA reception since 2007.
“We kick-started our second half with that play by Randall,” Brehaut said. “He did a great job with that double move.”
Then, early in the fourth, the Bruins ran a flea-flicker that fooled the Wildcat secondary into leaving Josh Smith wide open. Brehaut hit him with the ball just before he broke the plane of the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown.
“When I saw the safety come up on the run, I knew it was working just like what we run in practice,” Smith said. “Rarely do a lot of plays work like we see in practice.”
Arizona landed the first punch of the battle when Scott found receiver Juron Criner for a 41-yard deep ball to put the Wildcats on the board in the first quarter. Criner would finish as the game’s leading receiver with 127 yards.
UCLA responded with a quick scoring drive of its own. Put in good position by a 45-yard kick return by sophomore Damien Thigpen, the Bruins finished things off with an 11-yard rushing touchdown by junior tailback Derrick Coleman.
The Wildcats would rack up 374 yards in the first half, but the Bruin defense kept its team in the game with some key stops. Arizona was forced to kick two field goals in the second quarter, which kept the score at 19-7 at halftime.
After suffering through consecutive blowout conference losses, there were more positive things Neuheisel could have said in his postgame press conference. The third-year coach wore a tragic face though, knowing his team was going to start another week building off a loss and not a win.
“I am adamant that we are going to work diligently to get our execution to be where it needs to be, so we don’t have this many conversations that are in this tone and I look the way I look,” he said.
Injury Update
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jerry Johnson left the game with a left ankle fracture, but not before grabbing two catches for 21 yards. “¦ Redshirt junior middle linebacker Steve Sloan, who was starting his first game of the season in place of injured linebacker Patrick Larimore, had to be replaced after straining his left hamstring. “¦ Sophomore F-back Damien Thigpen gave the Bruins great field position with a long return on their first possession, but he broke his clavicle and had to leave the game as well.