Viewed from afar, a fairly decent outing

Sometimes a football coach can outthink himself, muck matters up and cost his team a potential win.

This happened Saturday at the Rose Bowl, struggling UCLA against plucky Fresno State.

It was the third quarter. The Bruins, to the surprise of many, had made it a tight game. They were behind by just a point, 23-22, but Fresno State had the ball at the Bruins' 15. Third down, the Bulldogs were called for holding. If the Bruins decline the penalty, Fresno State almost certainly goes for a short field goal and the Bruins remain in striking distance.

But UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel, brought to Westwood this year partly because the last head coach made too many odd in-game gambles, took the penalty, forcing the Bulldogs to backpedal but giving them a third-down mulligan.

"It pushed them back to third and 22," Neuheisel would grimly explain. "If they make 10 yards on the play, I haven't lost anything. If they throw long downfield and it turns into [an interception], that's a good thing because I save three points."

What actually happened wasn't anything like what Neuheisel hoped. On the next play, Fresno State's senior quarterback stepped back and tossed a short pass that became a touchdown. The air once again sucked from the Bruins, who promptly sputtered when they had the ball, punted and then watched Fresno State quickly march for yet another TD. Just like that, the Bulldogs had a 14-point lead and enough cushion to withstand a UCLA comeback. Final score: Fresno State 36, UCLA 31.

"I understood the risks," noted Neuheisel, who called the move a gamble that "just backfired."

Couldn't have been said better.

Still, if we can take a broad view of this third straight defeat, if we can wipe away the memory of a coaching decision that went terribly haywire, if we can judge the Bruins the way this columnist suggested last week -- focusing more on incremental improvement than on victories and defeats -- then this was actually a fairly decent Saturday for the Bruins.

Step back a bit. Rarely have we seen college football played as poorly as that played by the Bruins over the last two losses, a pair of games in which they were outscored, 90-10. So, when the Rose Bowl filled on Saturday with enough red-shirted Fresno State fans to make this seem like a game hosted in the San Joaquin Valley, and when the Bulldogs scored on a punt return within the game's first minute, it seemed certain more devastation was on its way.