First league loss leaves Bruins befuddled
PULLMAN - In the latest turn in what has become a roller-coaster season of sorts for UCLA, nobody in the visitor’s locker room had any excuses for the Bruins’ lackluster 27-7 loss to Washington State on Saturday.
Then again, nobody had any answers for the dumbfounding defeat, either.
“There is no rationale for this,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “We planned and prepared for this game like you would every game. We just didn’t make plays. … I don’t have an answer for this.”
Despite inexplicable losses to Utah and Notre Dame, UCLA came into Saturday’s game off an upset of then-10th-ranked California last weekend; 4-0 and tied for first place in the Pac-10; and one win from bowl eligibility.
All that went out the window, however, against the Cougars.
“College football is up and down this year, and we’re living proof of that,” Bruins defensive end Bruce Davis said after the game. “We weren’t overlooking them. We just didn’t play well.”
UCLA started fast out of the gate. Running back Kahlil Bell took the third play from scrimmage 50 yards for a touchdown, giving UCLA a 7-0 lead with 13:47 left in the first quarter, and it appeared the WSU defense was in for a long day.
But Bell would leave later in the first quarter with a sprained right knee, and the Bruins never found any sort of consistency on the ground afterward.
Then the Bruins lost their leading receiver, Brandon Breazell, to bruised ribs early in the second quarter.
“It didn’t help that we lost a couple of big playmakers for us offensively that early in the game,” Dorrell said. “They are integral pieces to our puzzle, let alone all the other injuries we had coming into the game.”
Bruins starting quarterback Ben Olson was knocked out with a knee injury on Oct. 6 at Notre Dame, and his replacement, Pat Cowan, came into Saturday’s game with a gimpy knee and a tweaked hamstring. But Cowan wasn’t about to make excuses for his modest totals of 17-of-36 passing for 167 yards and no touchdowns.
“Physically, I’m hurt, but I’d feel a lot better if we had won,” he said. “I feel like I underachieved today. I didn’t do the things I needed to help our team win.”
Defensively, the Bruins admitted they were caught off guard by the Cougars’ ability to run the ball.
UCLA entered with the nation’s eighth-best run defense, allowing just 79.6 yards per game, and WSU had struggled to generate any sort of ground momentum the past month. But the Cougars’ Dwight Tardy surprised the Bruins by rolling up 214 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries.
“We were out there expecting them to throw, and they ran,” Davis said.
“Whatever people may say about other things, the injuries or the long trip or whatever, that’s just a distraction from the bottom line,” Cowan said. “There are 22 people on the field, and that’s all that matters.”