PASADENA – Another beautiful night at the Rose Bowl, another fake comeback in the books.
And who fakes a comeback as convincingly as the UCLA Bruins?
Fake as in a comeback attempt that falls short, as many do, but that along the way gets loyalists’ hopes up even though they know better. That teases and toys and torments and lets hope creep back in, like a toxic habit, before the other shoe inevitably drops.
The false hope of fraudulent rallies.
Having so many second-half surges fall flat, like the one on Sept. 6, in UCLA’s 30-23 loss to UNLV, when the Bruins came out of hibernation only after falling behind 23-0. Or in their 17-14 loss at Northwestern on Sept. 27, when UCLA trailed 17-3 at halftime.
And now Saturday’s 28-21 loss to Nebraska, another predictable entry in UCLA’s too-little, too-late log book.
Add those to consecutive mid-season surges that fell equally, bitterly flat.
There was the three-game winning streak last year, in DeShaun Foster’s first season, against Rutgers, Nebraska and Iowa, that made it seem like the coach had found something, that he wasn’t actually in over his head … only for him to be fired three games into this season, having won only one of six games since UCLA strung together those few pearls of success.
And now, as an encore, another three-game winning streak this year. Interim coach Tim Skipper taking over and taking everyone by surprise, making the Bruins the talk of L.A. for a moment with victories over then-No. 7 Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland.
A successful spurt that made it seem – if not probable – possible that a team that looked like it might lose every game could actually go to a bowl game.
Alas, a too-good-to-be-true fairytale. Saturday’s loss to Nebraska didn’t officially knock UCLA out of bowl contention, but unofficially? Well.
Yes, the Bruins – now 3-6, 3-3 in Big Ten play – have three more games to try to reach the necessary six-win threshold. But those are against top-ranked Ohio State, Washington and USC, teams that, it turns out, don’t have much in common with those UCLA defeated, who are a combined 1-17 in Big Ten Conference play this year.
The programs left on the docket? They’re 14-4 against conference adversaries.
Still, the Bruins are admirably committed to the bit (but don’t bite, Bruins fans).
Linebacker Jalen Woods: “We got three more games left, so every game we’re playing it like it’s our last, so everyone’s giving 100% effort and nobody’s quitting on the team or nothing like that.”
Skipper: “Keep fightin’, that’s what we’re gonna do. The sun is gonna rise tomorrow, we’re not in quit mode or anything like that. Sun’s gonna rise, we’re gonna get back to work.”
Like clockwork, like on Saturday, when the Bruins lost to Nebraska (7-3, 4-3) before a season-high crowd of 44,481 – thanks largely to the Cornhuskers fans who traveled in droves – after going down 28-7. The hosts mustered up touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters to make it interesting but not necessarily close.
That makes sense only in games like these, when two teams can mirror each other statistically – Nebraska totaled 361 yards, 156 on the ground and possessed the ball for exactly 30 minutes; UCLA totaled 348 yards, 157 rushing and possessed for exactly 30 minutes – but afterward had Skipper admitting “it didn’t feel that way as we were out there.”
No, because Nebraska’s yardage came easy, courtesy of junior running back Emmett Johnson rumbling downhill for 232 yards of total offense and three touchdowns.
And UCLA’s yardage came largely because the pocket kept collapsing on Nico Iamaleava, who kept having to run for his life. The Bruins’ only effective offense wasn’t so much by design, but when their quarterback ran free, usually juking multiple defenders before a gang of Huskers could pile on him to yank him to the turf, group projects those tackles.
Violent scrums that might not have bloodied the 21-year-old from Long Beach – “Yeah, man, shoot, I’ve played football a long time and I’ve gotten hit a lot of times,” he shrugged – but that certainly left him bruised.
Not unlike the spirits of a football program’s fan base that is fortunate now to be able to turn its attention to basketball, to the No. 3-ranked Bruin women and No. 12-ranked UCLA men.
Teams to believe in and rally behind, whose occasional comebacks will actually, authentically stick.
