Craft gets it done on instinct

It was the first chunk of an 11-play, 87-yard, elegantly engineered, stoically played, game-winning, career-elevating touchdown drive for UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft: a 15-yard pass to sophomore split end Dominique Johnson, a pass different from so many Craft had thrown Saturday, a ball with zip on it, one not tipped by a defensive lineman, one not so wobbly it might not break tissue paper.

This quarterback had almost been pulled earlier in the game, an admission Coach Rick Neuheisel had no trouble making after the Bruins beat Stanford, 23-20, at the Rose Bowl.

Norm Chow, UCLA's offensive coordinator, made Craft's case to Neuheisel, and afterward Chow said he was not surprised when Craft completed six of seven passes on that final drive.

"A study was done once, and over 70% of all passing plays are made off-rhythm," Chow said. "They're not made like you draw it up in a book. Kevin is very good at that, and he needs to trust himself that he can make some of those plays up."

The first play Craft made up was the strike to Johnson.

"It was right where it should be," Johnson said of the pass that took UCLA from its own 13 to the 28. That pass was followed by a safe throw, but one to a freshman, Nelson Rosario, who caught it for nine yards.

Sometimes it takes courage to trust a rookie, and Rosario said, "Kevin believed I could catch the ball."

The last play Craft made up was a scrambling throw to backup tight end Cory Harkey, a freshman who has had a bum ankle.

It came with 10 seconds left, it was for a seven-yard touchdown, and Chow said that if Craft hadn't trusted his instincts he might have settled for a receiver who was open on the one- or two-yard line.

"The initial read Kevin wasn't real patient with," Chow said. "The initial read would have gotten us four or five yards, and we needed seven. Kevin scrambled around and made that play. If he would always trust that instinct, he's a really good player."

Not all the big plays of the final drive were passes.

On a third-and-one at the UCLA 37, fullback Chane Moline ran through or over four Stanford defenders, and during the 17-yard gain, he said afterward, he never felt anything except that maybe he hadn't gained enough for the first down.

In the opinion of tailback Kahlil Bell, that effort might have been the game-saver.