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Football UCLA v. USC

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QUARTERBACK REPORT

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THE GOOD: The lone bright spot for Pat Cowan came at the end of the second quarter with the Bruins trailing 17-0. Starting on their own 35-yard line, Cowan orchestrated a five-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to pull the Bruins within 10 points. On the drive, Cowan completed passes of 11, 36 and 9 yards, capped by a 9-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Dominique Johnson.

THE BAD: Cowan did not look to be playing at full strength and looked rusty after having not played for almost a month. He was inaccurate with his throws, completing 13 of 24 passes with one interception, and did not show the mobility that was crucial to last year’s win for the Bruins. Olson relieved Cowan near the end of the fourth quarter and failed to complete a pass.

THE VERDICT: One of the keys to the Bruins’ win over the Trojans last year was the mobility of Cowan and the plays he was able to make with his legs. This year, Cowan was noticeably less than 100 percent and was unable to make the plays the Bruins needed to repeat last year’s result.

– Complied by Andrew Howard, Bruin Sports senior staff

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Photo by Jessica Lum

USC running back Joe McKnight is brought down by two Bruin defenders. The Trojans ran the ball 49 times in the win and finished the game with 231 yards rushing. McKnight, a freshman, led USC with 89 yards rushing and a touchdown.

For nearly 38 minutes Saturday, UCLA’s tired, beaten, injured defense went toe-to-toe with USC’s offense. They bent a little here, broke a little there, but the end result was that USC, a team predicted to beat UCLA by 20, scored just 24 points.

They got to Trojan quarterback John David Booty just once for a sack, but they may have gotten in his head, as many of his passes sailed high and wide of his receivers.

They did not stuff the run but they slowed it down at times, and if it weren’t for an offense that was almost completely unable to move the ball, it might have been enough.

In the end, though, it wasn’t. The defense was left on the field for too long, with too little margin for error.

“I think we had maybe four or five turnovers and we still only lost by 17 points,” linebacker Reggie Carter said. “Not even just the offense, but just the rest of the team could have made more plays and the game could have been different.

“I don’t think we got worn down, we just didn’t do our assignments. It’s not like we didn’t play hard or didn’t play together, it was maybe just one person didn’t get in their gap or missed their assignment and they (USC) capitalized.”

USC possessed the ball for 38 minutes, ran 85 offensive plays to UCLA’s 54, and still only had 437 yards of total offense.

After the game, still smarting from the loss, none of the defensive players acknowledged that they might have played well in holding the Trojans to 24 points.

Instead, they talked about missed opportunities.

“Our penalties and our mistakes today cost us,” cornerback Rodney Van said. “Playing a team in their backyard as good as they are, you have to play flawless, and today we didn’t play flawless. We didn’t take advantage of too many opportunities.”

Toward the beginning of the fourth quarter, UCLA was down by just 10 points and made a stop near the goal line that put the Bruins in an interesting position. Because of a USC holding penalty, the Bruins had the option of either taking a chance with a fourth and goal from their own 2-yard line, or they could put the Trojans in a third-and-goal situation on the 12-yard line.

UCLA accepted the penalty, and on the ensuing play, Booty threw a strike to tight end Fred Davis. Christian Taylor missed the tackle, and the game was basically sealed.

“For sure (USC) would go for it (on fourth down) and (they would) have a run-pass option,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “It’s hard for a defense to play run-pass. We backed them up and gave us some more space. We had a great call, but missed the tackle.”

USC never really broke any big plays. The closest thing was a Chauncey Washington run in the middle stage of the game, when he had beaten everyone but tripped over a teammate and a referee.

Though the Trojan running game gashed the Bruins for 10 and 15-yard runs fairly often, there was usually someone there to make a tackle to save the game from becoming an out-and-out blowout.