As Cougs can attest, Bruins have perfected come-from-behind wins

PULLMAN – Coming from behind isn’t something you necessarily want to get good at, but UCLA has certainly seemed to master the discipline.

For the third straight week, the 12th-ranked Bruins rallied from a late-game, double-digit deficit, this time to beat Washington State 44-41 in overtime Saturday night.

UCLA trailed Washington by 10 in the third quarter before winning 21-17, and California led the Bruins by 12 in the fourth quarter on the way to a 47-40 UCLA win.

But both those comebacks were at home and they never trailed by this much – down 21 until less than a minute remained in the first half and a 17-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter. The 21-point comeback ties the school’s best ever.

“What an effort,” UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell said. “We’ve been a very good adjustment team in the second half and we did a nice job of creating some three-and-out situations that gave our offense a nice opportunity to put some points on the board.”

As much as the Bruins needed to score while trailing 38-21 at the start of the fourth quarter, they needed to stop WSU running back Jerome Harrison even more.

Harrison had 250 yards on 29 carries after three quarters, but gained only 10 on five carries for the final 15 minutes and overtime.

“Part of it was just tackling,” said Dorrell, whose defense changed fronts and committed a safety to the run in order to slow Harrison, who has 507 yards in two games against UCLA. “We were able to string him out a little more so he wasn’t able to crease through the line of scrimmage.”

WSU ran 14 plays in four fourth-quarter possessions – three 3-and-outs and the final possession of regulation – which ended in an incomplete Hail Mary pass.

When UCLA had the ball, the Bruins put it in the more-than-capable hands of quarterback Drew Olson, who finished 31 of 43 for 338 yards and a school record-tying five touchdowns.

“He’s been doing this the last couple weeks; he’s been Mr. Crunch Time for us,” Dorrell said. “He’s been the guy that, whether it’s third- or fourth-down plays, he’s been able to do those things. He’s proven he can win when the chips are against him, and he’s proven he can win on the road in a pretty crazy environment.”

Olson led a four-minute, 96-yard drive – maybe to go down in folklore as Pullman’s “The Drive” – which started with the Bruins on their own 4-yard-line with 4:52 to play.

A pass to 6-foot-6 tight end Marcedes Lewis got the Bruins 26 yards, then UCLA needed three plays to get another first down at their own 41.

A basketball-style chest pass to backup running back Chris Markey as Olson was being sacked gained 14 yards and three consecutive completions after a sack put UCLA on the Cougars 9. An incompletion brought up third-and-3.

Olson rolled right and found Marcus Everett leaping in the back of the end zone for the game-tying touchdown.

“It’s by far the biggest hole I’ve ever come out of,” said Olson, who passed Cory Paus for second all-time in career passing yardage at UCLA. “As the game progressed, we just got more and more confident. Regardless of the score, we kept our focus, our poise. We really played calm. I have never been so calm at the end of the game like that.”

Then, after holding the Cougars to a field goal on the first possession of overtime, it only appeared to be a matter of time before the momentum-laden Bruins, who had scored touchdowns in 23 of 27 red-zone appearances this season, pushed it into the end zone.

Three Maurice Drew carries and an Olson option carry put UCLA on the one, and Drew slammed it in for the winner.

“We knew we would have to run the ball, because that’s what we do,” said the 5-foot-8 Drew, who picked up 109 hard-fought yards on 29 carries. “The last play the O-line said you got to get in and they made a little crease for me and I got hit and my helmet came off.

“It didn’t matter if I was going to get hit or not because I had to get in.”