Cougs shock Bruins, notch 7th win

LOS ANGELES_Get out the NoDoz and brew a pot of coffee, No. 19 UCLA and Washington State are going to burn the midnight oil in the Rose Bowl. The Bruins averaged 6.2 yards per play and went 12-for-19 on third down conversions. The Bruins are also solid on the other side of the ball with freshman quarterback Josh Rosen and running back Paul Perkins, who rushes for 107 yards a game.

The offensive play-calling was pretty strong until it came to the red zone.

UCLA’s offensive dominance in the first half was best illustrated by a 94-yard drive finished off by a Nate Starks 14-yard touchdown run for a 13-7 UCLA lead with 4:14 left in the second quarter. After losing his first two seasons to shoulder surgeries, redshirt sophomore Johnny Johnson has been effective in his three starts, nabbing his first career interception last Saturday at Oregon State.

WSU’s defense had kept the offense in the game, bending but never breaking, as is their wont, and coming up with two big goal line stands to force the Bruins to settle for field goals of 22 and 23 yards instead of touchdowns.

For reasons I can’t recall, I watched that game from a bar in the U. District and watched a replay the next morning on my Sony Betamax.

“Luke’s really tough. I’ve always admired that trait about him”, WSU coach Mike Leach said. OR finishes the season with a road record of 9-6 and will now return for its last four matches at Matthew Knight Arena.

UCLA wide receiver Jordan Payton makes a catch during the first half of an NCAA college football gam … And after Washington State beats his Bruins Saturday night, I won’t text him, but I will snicker silently to myself, knowing that karma and the Cougs teamed up to get him back. In the big picture, it’s a memorable win against a ranked team in an important area for recruiting. “You can’t do those types of things”.

With the Bruins catching up in the final set, libero Amanda Benson popped up an assist to Martenne Bettendorf on the outside who sealed the deal with a kill.

The third quarter devolved into a defensive battle, with the Cougars offense punting twice, and UCLA punting once.

So the jury is still out on UCLA’s run defense. And more profound. UCLA controls its own destiny going forward.

Almost two months later, Rosen has more than proven that statement to be true. Washington State bottled up Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey for three quarters, holding him to 61 yards rushing. His 37-yard touchdown run was as impressive an individual play as UCLA has had all year.

Rosen did seemingly everything he could to put the Bruins in position to win the game, it just wasn’t quite enough. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot, (we) just can’t get over the penalty hump. “We will look at the film, We will regroup and we’ll go play a good Utah team in Salt Lake City on Saturday”.

Compiled by Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.