Bruins’ brilliant game falls just three plays short of victory

Tuesday, October 15, 1996

FOOTBALL:

Last minute reversal to conservative plays proves turning
pointBy Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

Saturday’s game was supposed to be Bob Toledo’s coming out
party. He and his staff had put together a flawless game plan with
which to engage a top-ranked foe on national television. A victory
against fourth-ranked Arizona State would lend him instant
credibility as a head coach, something that eluded him after the
loss at Tennessee and the disaster in Michigan.

For 51 minutes, the Bruins could not have played better
football. The UCLA braintrust employed an aggressive offense that
capitalized on a Sun Devil defense bent on clogging the middle and
stopping the run. What better way to exploit that than to come out
throwing? That’s exactly what Cade McNown and Co. did to
perfection, executing routes and consistently hitting the open man,
leaving the ASU defense beleaguered and helpless.

Everything that Toledo had said he wanted to do when he took
over as head coach was done. An exciting, explosive aerial attack
with a sturdy running game, an opportunistic, aggressive defense,
and trick plays to keep the opposition off-balance. The naysayers
were proved wrong watching the Bruins execute onside kicks, fake
field goals and pooch punts to perfection.

The Bruins didn’t just fulfill this mantra for flashes of the
game. With daring calls and trick plays, they remained aggressive
throughout. Could this incredible performance last?

Sadly, when it came down to crunch time, the coaching staff,
which had outdone itself the entire afternoon, changed. It reverted
back to old, conservative tendencies, tendencies which had,
thankfully, been avoided up to that point.

The contest could have been put away when Javelin Guidry
intercepted a pass deep in Bruin territory with little over nine
minutes remaining and a 34-21 UCLA lead. One more long drive, just
a few more of the first downs that had been so plentiful in the
early going, and the game would be over. A little bit more
creativity and the Bruins would secure the victory, and with it,
national recognition and a big lift in the Rose Bowl race.

At the worst possible moment, the UCLA playcallers got gun shy,
and let the opportunity of the season slip away. After two straight
running plays, which netted five yards, they denied McNown, who put
up career numbers on the day, the chance to move the sticks via the
air on third and five.

The coaching staff inexplicably decided to take the ball out of
the hands of the man who carried them to the brink of victory on
the pretense of running out the clock (not the greatest choice
considering that there were nine minutes left and that McNown had
exploited the underbelly of the ASU defense all day). Instead, a
half-hearted run attempt was squelched by the Sun Devils and, as
Chris Sailer’s punt flew to the ASU squad, so too did the Bruins’
spirit.

Three-quarters of stupendous football were defiled by three
passive plays, and it was all over.

Less than three minutes later, ASU had grabbed the lead, Plummer
had shown why he deserves the Heisman Trophy, the UCLA offense had
fallen apart with fumbles on consecutive possessions and confused
personnel moves (Bruin running back Skip Hicks wasn’t supposed to
be in the game when he fumbled a handoff).

Adding insult to injury, all of Toledo’s trickery had been
trumped by ASU coach Bruce Snyder. The aptly named "Snake Pass",
was thrown by J.R. Redmond, a Devil tailback, to Plummer, who
slithered through five tacklers for the winning touchdown.

It was truly agonizing to see such a brilliant performance up
and down the lineup get washed away so quickly. It was depressing
to see that the old knock of conservatism hadn’t worked itself out
of the Bruins’ offensive mentality, and it was painful to realize
that perhaps UCLA doesn’t have that winning mentality yet.

That is truly the toughest part of it all, because we should
have won this game, case closed. Any talk of quality has been laid
to rest, this year’s squad has almost all the tools. There’s just
that one missing intangible that pops up during crunch time.
There’s no magic potion or chemical equation that can teach a team
how to win, it just has to be there.

On Saturday, it wasn’t.

The quarterback shootout that served as a backdrop for
Saturday’s drama was truly something special.

It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago McNown looked like
an intimidated sophomore against Michigan, completing just eight
passes. When juxtaposed against this recent effort of 395 yards and
three touchdowns, it seems unreal.

All game long, he made smart decisions, good reads and delivered
the ball on target. As if that wasn’t enough, he just had to make a
few spectacular throws for good measure. His off-balance, across
the body, third-and-long throw to Eric Scott with a defender in his
back pocket was something else, and that 39-yard strike to Derek
Ayers in the back of the end zone was just ridiculous.

He wasn’t just good when the Bruins were up, either, because
when the tide was turning, he did his damnedest to put the Bruins
back in command. With UCLA trailing by a point, he hit Jim McElroy
with a bomb deep in ASU territory with UCLA trailing by a point
­ only to be followed by the Durrell Price fumble.

What a shame that a loss had to mar such a memorable,
spectacular day, for after the game, McNown had no interest in his
own excellence, the belief being, what did it matter?

Mark Shapiro