Nothing to stand on

PASADENA, Calif. – The script was different, but the denouement was the same.

This time it was the offense and a nonexistent pass rush that let down Washington State in a 28-3 Pac-10 football loss to UCLA before 65,469 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

The Cougars defended the run better than they had all season, yielding just 100 yards, 31 coming on a Derrick Coleman fourth-quarter run. They had just one turnover – a Marshall Lobbestael third-quarter interception that led to UCLA’s third touchdown – despite a slight mist that dampened the Rose Bowl.

But they couldn’t stop UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft – 23 of 36 for 225 yards and two touchdowns – especially on third down.

“It was the quarterback mostly, one-step drops and let the ball out,” said senior Michael Graise, who played more than he had all season at defensive end. “We just couldn’t get there in time. He was just getting it out really quick and finding the little in-routes.”

The offense struggled to move the ball – 177 yards of total offense – against a Bruins defense that was giving up 415 yards a game coming in.

“We had some early opportunities, when we had field position,” WSU coach Paul Wulff said. “Then they went on a long scoring drive. We just couldn’t get in the red zone. We’d move the ball a little bit, but when we got across that 50-yard line, we would sputter.

“(We had) a lot of things shooting us in the foot.”

The loss dropped WSU to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-10, tied with Washington for the conference cellar.

The Bruins’ (2-3, 1-1) pass offense was keyed by Craft’s ability to survey the field before finding an open receiver. The Cougars rarely pressured him and never got close to a sack, going up against a UCLA offensive line with five starters who did not play a down last season.

“That’s two weeks in a row (Kevin’s) played really good, especially on third down,” UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. “He stood in the pocket while it was collapsing and still kept his eyes downfield to make a play. … It was a good job by the offensive line, one, but it was also Kevin hanging in there and making a play.”

“We didn’t break free enough to put on pressure,” Wulff said. “We’d blitz sometimes and we’d have a lot of guys rushing, and we couldn’t win the individual matchups to get the sack.

“We had (Craft) wrapped around the ankles one time and he breaks free to make the play.”

The Bruins’ ability to control the ball was evident in time of possession, a statistic WSU had dominated this season. UCLA had the ball for 9 more minutes than the Cougars, helped in large part by a second-half scoring drive that lasted 19 plays and 8:16, the longest against them this year, before Kahlil Bell posted his second 1-yard scoring run.

But that one just supplied the final margin. The game had been decided in the first half.

After a scoreless first quarter – a first for WSU’s defense this season – the Bruins took control in the second. In a reversal of form for the Cougars, they did it without aid from WSU.

Despite a wet football from a pregame shower, WSU had zero turnovers in the first 30 minutes, a marked departure from previous games. The Cougars came in minus-13 in turnover margin, but up until Lobbestael’s interception they didn’t give UCLA any extra possessions.

Not that the Bruins needed any.

Romeo Pellum gave them some help, jumpstarting their first scoring drive with a 15-yard facemask personal foul at the end of a 7-yard Bell pass reception.

That put the ball on the WSU 28. Four plays later, Craft found tight end Ryan Moya matched up against Chima Nwachukwu in the right corner of the end zone.

Though Nwachukwu had him well covered, the 6-foot-3 Moya rose up over the 5-11 Nwachukwu and hauled in Craft’s 16-yard pass and a 7-0 lead.

“Guys weren’t wide open, we just couldn’t make the play,” Wulff said.

The Cougars’ front actually dominated the line of scrimmage – against the run – before halftime, limiting UCLA to 40 yards on 18 carries. But a defense that came in only giving up 167 yards a game passing yielded 132 in the first two quarters.

The Bruins drove for their first score early in the second quarter, with Craft doing most of the damage.

A 12-yard hookup with Taylor Embree got UCLA out of a hole, and a second Craft-to-Embree connection over the middle on a third-and-11 picked up 23 yards and put UCLA at the WSU 39.

From there, Craft teamed with Terrence Austin for two completions, the latter putting the Bruins on the 1. Austin finished with a game-high seven catches for 77 yards.

Bell, who had just 32 yards on 13 first-half carries and finished with 43 on 21, punched it in for UCLA’s 14-0 halftime lead.

Not that WSU didn’t have chances.

“We really struggled on third down,” Wulff said, noting WSU converted just 2 of 14. “We did pretty good on first, pretty good on second in the first half. Then on third down we weren’t very good at all.”

WSU finally got on the board early in the second half – extending its scoring streak to 279 games – on Nico Grasu’s 47-yard field goal, the longest of his Cougars career. It was also the longest since Loren Langley’s 48-yarder against Washington in 2005.

Lobbestael, making his first road start, was 15 of 31 for 151 yards, with Brandon Gibson and his six catches for 62 yards his favorite target once again.

“I would rate it a four,” Lobbestael said about his performance. “I made too many mental mistakes and I wasn’t relaxed enough. My accuracy was off. Guys were trying to make plays, but you can’t make a play when the ball is two feet off target.”