Bruins run over the Ducks
literally
By Todd Fletcher
Of the Emerald
In its battle for the Pac-10 title
and a second consecutive trip to
the Rose Bowl, UCLA seems to
have adopted a Revolutionary War
phrase — one if by land, two if by
sea. The Bruins have reworded it
somewhat to read one if by land,
two if by air.
In last week's win against
University of Washington, UCLA
put on an aerial show that saw
walk-on quarterback Rick
Neuheisel complete 25 of 27
passes (a 92.5 percentage and an
NCAA single-game completion
percentage record) for 287 yards.
Saturday against Oregon, the
Bruins left the passing game in
sunny Southern California and
opted for the running game — a
running game featuring the
workhorse effort of tailback Kevin
Nelson. Nelson had scoring runs
of four, 12 and 35 yards and rack
ed up 131 yards on 17 carries.
UCLA's running machine had
some help — from the Ducks, who
repeatedly failed to make first
time tackles. But Nelson was more
inclined to credit his own team.
Photos by Dave Kao
Oregon's Lew Barnes leaves UCLA tacklers in his wake on the
way to a 69-yard punt return. Barnes' score narrowed Bruin lead
to 21-13.
"The offensive line did a good
job to get me to the corner," said
Nelson of his 35-yard touchdown
jaunt in the third quarter. "The
holes they created were giving us
a chance at five or six yards a
crack."
At times, opportunities for five
or six yards turned into 12 or 14
yards. In their first scoring drive,
the Bruins ran roughshod over the
Duck defense. Nelson had a
14-yard run, Danny Andrews had a
pickup of eight yards and Frank
Cephous went off left tackle for 13
more. Nelson capped the eight
play, 65-yard scoring drive with an
unmolested four-yard run.
"Nelson runs hard, and we
made him look awfully good."
said safety Dan Wilken after
Oregon missed numerous tackles.
Nelson's ability to cut upfield
and spin off Oregon tacklers led
to one of his most productive days
in a Bruin uniform.
"The key was body control
because of the slippery turf," said
Nelson. "Oregon was coming up
(to tackle) so fast, I would make a
move and they would slip."
The Bruins finished with 240
yards on the ground, 155 of that in
the first half.
"Give UCLA credit for some of
our missed tackles, but we missed
too many to give them all the
credit," said Oregon coach Rich
Brooks.
The only thing that prevented
UCLA from going in at halftime
with a 21 or 24-0 lead was
penalties. The Bruins were whistl
ed for six infractions for 72 yards
in the first half. Three of the flags
were for second-quarter holding
The second half, however, was a
difference between night and day.
Defensive back Don Brown looks for some running room after
intercepting a Rick Neuheisel pass. He found none, fumbled
and UCLA recovered to clinch a 24-13 victory.
Oregon toughened up and
started to make tackles. The
Bruins managed just 53 yards on
the ground in the third quarter
and tacked on only 32 more in the
fourth.
Nelson was held in check in the
second half; he picked up 53
yards, and 35 of those came on the
third-quarter scoring run. He was
held to 13 yards in the fourth stan
za when Oregon started to make a
run at the Bruins.
Still, Oregon's first half
rendered its comeback bid too lit
tle, too late.
"They're a good football team,
but we made them look like a hell
of a good football team," said
defensive tackle Dan Ralph.
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