CORVALLIS, Ore. ””mdash; UCLA looked greener than the backdrop surrounding Reser Stadium against Oregon State on Saturday afternoon.
With senior safety Tony Dye sidelined because of a stinger, redshirt freshman Tevin McDonald was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time.
When starting junior running back Johnathan Franklin went down with a hip injury, sophomore Malcolm Jones was forced into his most pressing action of the year, becoming the change-of-pace back behind Derrick Coleman.
Youth was called upon to protect a comfortable lead, something the Bruins have not had during a 1-2 non-conference start.
UCLA ended up going scoreless for a stretch lasting almost half a game.
But as the Beavers gnawed away at the lead, the Bruins’ dam bending and about to burst, UCLA escaped with a 27-19 win, triumphing in a road conference game for the first time in six tries while breaking a four-game conference-opener losing streak.
“It’s a 12-game season,” said senior linebacker Sean Westgate, before quickly correcting himself. “Now it’s a nine-game season in the Pac-12. Pretty much every game is a must-win.”
Early on, the Bruins were channeling memories of last week’s 49-20 shellacking to the Texas Longhorns, only with roles reversed.
UCLA’s defense played confident – forcing turnovers, giving the offense the ball in opportune spots – while junior quarterback Richard Brehaut showed just as much poise, leading the offense to scores on three of its first five drives.
Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion, a redshirt freshman making his first career start, coughed it up twice in the first half ““ one an interception, one a fumble ““ and heard the boos from the black and orange crowd as the Bruins built a 21-3 lead, one they should have taken into the halftime break.
They didn’t because of an error by their own coach.
Facing fourth down and coming out of a timeout with 32 seconds left before the half, the easy call was to punt it out of bounds, leaving the Beavers with little time.
The wrong call was to punt it straight to Oregon State’s Jordan Poyer, who returned it 85 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 21-10.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, job security be damned, was more than willing to take the heat.
“We should have kicked the ball out of bounds, and that’s on me,” said Neuheisel with extra emphasis on that last word.
He added, “I wanted to kick it out of bounds, I didn’t communicate that.”
It sapped the momentum from UCLA just as quickly as it gave new life to the Beavers. Mannion led Oregon State to a field goal on their first drive out of the half to cut the lead to 21-13.
Before the quarter ended, Mannion found Jordan Bishop streaking across the middle of the field, who tiptoed the sideline and dove for the end zone, dragging UCLA safety Dalton Hilliard in with him for a 45-yard touchdown.
With Oregon State coach Mike Riley opting to go for two to tie it up, redshirt sophomore safety Alex Mascarenas intercepted the try attempt.
“We kept fighting,” defensive coordinator Joe Tresey said. “Got in some bad situations, but it was the old “˜bend but don’t break’ deal.”
It was a relief to an offense that went 27 minutes, 50 seconds between scoring, spanning the second to midway through the fourth quarter.
“It was pretty frustrating,” said Jones, who stepped up as soon as Franklin went down and carried the ball nine times for 38 yards. “We knew we had the game in our hands early.”
A proud coach spoke glowingly after of his team’s “turn-the-page moment” after the game. UCLA stood tall on Saturday, not to be felled even after Neuheisel erred.
“I told them (at halftime), “˜I take full responsibility for the punt return, that’s on me, now you guys got to pick me up, just like you pick each other up, and we’re going to wrestle momentum back from them,'” Neuheisel said. “And that’s what happened.”