Extra Points: Longhorns stampeded by rushing Bruins in Texas

There was a long list of words, acronyms and hyphenated phrases that came to my mind after watching UCLA upset Texas on Saturday afternoon.

Ironic.

Who would have thought that the Bruins would lose their first two games of the season against Kansas State and then-No. 24 Stanford, but then go on to defeat then-No. 23 Houston and then-No. 7 Texas in consecutive weeks?

And no one anticipated UCLA having a chance at defeating Texas in Austin, where the Longhorns hadn’t lost in their past 17 contests.

Career-defining.

The win over Texas was by far the biggest in coach Rick Neuheisel’s career as the Bruins’ head man.

Others that come to mind are last year’s wins at Tennessee and in the EagleBank Bowl against Temple, but in my eyes, both pale in comparison to beating a top-10 football powerhouse on the road.

And this wasn’t like beating a team like Boise State, whose reign on top has just begun, though it’s yet to be determined if it will be short-lived.

Texas is an established, dominant program. Mack Brown has been considered one of the nation’s best for close to two decades.

Neuheisel, in his young UCLA coaching career, stamping a win over Brown is nothing short of monumental.

WTH?

If you’re not familiar with the complete range of text message lingo, this one stands for “what the heck?”

What a gem of an acronym, right?

But the reason for my bewilderment is that the Bruins racked up 291 total yards, 264 of which were on the ground.

UCLA only had 27 passing yards! If that’s not worthy of a “˜WTH,’ then I don’t know what is.

Usually, to beat these top teams, you have to do it with an extremely balanced attack. But the Bruins displayed the opposite against the Longhorns, only amassing those 27 passing yards on eight attempts.

Prince didn’t even throw the ball 10 times! Not even nine times!

I knew UCLA’s passing game was in shambles, but I never saw this coming. The even more surprising part is it worked.

Revenge-thwarting blowout.

The last time the Bruins took on the Longhorns, the 1997 Bruins won 66-3, a performance which was dubbed “Rout 66.”

So with the Bruins in town again, a lot of the talk surrounding the game was the Longhorns would seemingly be out to avenge the butt-kicking delivered by the Bruins some 13 years earlier.

In short, it didn’t happen.

In fact, UCLA didn’t just win. They won in blowout fashion.

The 34-12 score is not indicative of how the game actually went. The Bruins dominated the time-of-possession category, maintaining control of the ball for 35:29 compared to 24:31 for the Longhorns.

In addition, the Bruins handily won the turnover battle, forcing and then recovering four Texas fumbles and grabbing one interception. UCLA had two turnovers itself, both on fumbles, but neither seriously affected the outcome of the game.

Texas came into the game with one of the top defenses in the country, statistically speaking. Before Saturday, the Longhorns were only allowing 44 rushing yards per game.

And it wasn’t just Johnathan Franklin who ran all over the Longhorns.

Franklin led the attack, tallying 118 yards on 19 carries with one touchdown, but Derrick Coleman got into the act as well, rushing for 94 yards on 16 carries.

Prince also chimed in with 50 yards on 13 carries, which spelled doom for Texas’ top defense.

Another impressive aspect of Saturday’s game was the fact that UCLA got stronger as the game went on.

The Bruins were only up by 10 at halftime, but they opened up the second half with an eight-play, 80-yard march down the field, resulting in a Franklin touchdown run.

And if you were watching the game, and you saw that drive, you had an inkling this was the Bruins’ game to win.

In the end, all eloquently incorporated wordplay aside, maybe the Longhorns were a bit overrated.

But overrated doesn’t get you beat by 22 at home by a team that lost 35-0 in its own house just two weeks ago.

The bottom line is, the Bruins came to play and easily outplayed the Longhorns. Prince won with his feet. Akeem Ayers showed once again why he is one of the nation’s best defensive players. Franklin continued to thrive in the pistol offense.

So what did we learn Saturday?

That “Hook ’em Horns” is so yesterday, especially considering how those Longhorns keep getting clawed by the Bruins.

Claw ’em Bruins … does that work?

E-mail Watson at [email protected].