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UCLA: Just as we Drew it up
UW defense Drewn and quartered By: Malamute, September 19, 2004 UCLA’s Maurice Drew ran for a school record 5 touchdowns and 322 yards as UCLA (2-1) beat Washington, 37-31, in a thriller at Husky Stadium. The clock ran out for the Huskies, leaving them lifeless and defenseless on the Bruins’ two-yard line. Er, hum, speaking of defenseless. On the way to finding its quarterback, who may be Casey Paus, and its place kicker, who may be Michael Braunstein, the UW also found out that its defense has more security holes than Windows. Taking a 24-7 lead in the first quarter, the UW defense imploded, allowing UCLA to take a 27-24 lead into the break. During "Operation Catch-up," Drew had his way with the Husky defense and, to an Internet security guru on his day off monitoring a Windows game-play environment, might have looked like a masquerading worm hell bent on performing a Denial of Service attack as he ran for three touchdowns, the last of which gave the Bruins the lead at the half. The Bruins posted 522 net yards and 424 yards rushing. Drew’s five touchdowns came from 47, 62, 58, 15 and 37 yards out, the last one sealing the Huskies’ fate with 11:10 to go in the third quarter and the Bruins taking a 34-24 lead. But still the Dawgs had a chance thanks to UCLA offensive coordinator Tom Cable who may have been too clever by half when he tried to draw the Huskies offsides with time running out. With 39 seconds left on the clock and trailing 37-31, the Huskies got the ball back on their own 40, needing a touchdown to win. During the ensuing drive, Paus performed like a veteran quarterback, working the ball to the UCLA 2-yard line when he hit Charles Fredrick over the middle with a 26-yard pass and the clock running out. On the play preceding Paus' last-ditch effort, the Bruins had a fourth and 1 on the Huskies’ 39. Quarterback Drew Olson took a knee on the 40, thinking one of the Huskies’ defensive linemen had crossed the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped. Clearly, that Husky was in the neutral zone, but the offsides penalty was not called and the Huskies got the break they needed. Because of the crowd noise, it was the first time in the game the Bruins had changed their snap count. The Huskies scored first, on an eighty-yard drive to start the game, which was countered quickly by Drew who raced 47 yards for a score. On a play designed to go inside, Drew cutback to the outside after seeing the middle was plugged and outraced CB Sam Cunningham to the end zone. Thinking the play was to go inside, the Husky secondary was badly out of position on the play. After the UW took the 24-7 lead, Drew scored four straight times, giving the Bruins a 34-24 lead with 11:10 to go in the third quarter. Not that the UCLA defense was much prettier. It gave up 429 total yards to the Huskies, with 219 yards coming on the ground. Running backs Kenny James and Shelton Sampson combined for 133 yards and 76 yards rushing, respectively. Casey Paus completed 13 of 28 passes for 200 yards, 2 of them for touchdowns, and was not intercepted. His pass-efficiency rating was a respectable 130 on the evening. Paus was 6 for 5 yards running, which is turnaround from last season when, in most games, QB Cody Pickett accounted for negative run yardage because of the subtracted sack yardage. Benefiting from improved offensive line play this season, Paus was not sacked during the game. "Guys need to get off their blocks and make tackles," UW coach Keith Gilbertson said, stating the obvious. "We didn't get them stopped." Referring to the play when the cadence of the signal calling was changed, center Mike McCloskey of the Bruins said, "I've done it eight or nine times over the last two seasons and never has it not worked. I snapped the ball when the guy was in the neutral zone." The play killed a Bruin drive that had eaten up the clock with 6:02 remaining in the game and it left Paus with 39 seconds to go. Going into the game, the UW defense was still in question because of the offense's five turnovers in the loss to Fresno State, 35-16. Ostensibly, the defense played well in that game, however, as we noted, the UW offense gave FSU all the offense they needed. Except for its 80-yard drive that went for a score and a 14-7 lead, FSU never really needed to test the UW defense with a wide-open, balanced attack. The UCLA offense had an obvious advantage, having twice as many playmakers as the UW, along with a better offensive line. As it turned out, only one playmaker was needed, Maurice Drew. All other things being equal between two teams, playmakers and turnovers can make the difference, as they did in the UW's first two games. An afterthought. Both the UW and UCLA compete in the same talent-rich, southern California market for prospects. When Coach Karl Dorrell goes up against Gilbertson for a prospect, he can say that the Bruins have beaten the Huskies in 7 out of their last 8 meetings and have won 4 straight games against them. Personally, Dorrell is 2-0 against Gilby. Gilbertson is an outstanding coach and strategist. However, the negative image he is acquiring in southern California will hurt him on the recruiting trail, which is his life’s blood. And now that the one-half of the question on defense has been answered (the other being, does Washington have a pass defense?), the UW (0-2) is seemingly in for a long season as it takes to the road the next two weeks, playing at Notre Dame and Stanford.
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