There’s No Way to Soften the Blow for This One

MIAMI —  “Roooose Bowl . . . Roooose Bowl.”

Outside the UCLA locker room Saturday night, the once-coveted chant become a taunt.

Again and again, serenading Miami fans reminded the Bruins of the depth of their fall.

Inside, the Bruins were still dazed from the landing.

They threw metal benches and wire laundry baskets. They cursed and cried and coughed.

They had just been rocked, rolled and hit with pepper spray.

Yeah, pepper spray.

Some players were inadvertently showered by crowd-control police as they were leaving the Orange Bowl field while Miami fans were overtaking it after the Hurricanes’ stunning 49-45 victory.

“Can you believe this?” guard Andy Meyers said. “I mean, can you believe this?”

Not Jason Bell, who was not sprayed only because he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Not after being part of a defense that had just allowed 689 yards and cost the Bruins an unbeaten season and potential national championship.

As the stands emptied around him, Bell dropped to one knee in front of the bench and stared wistfully at the scene of the crime.

“It was like a bad dream, and I wanted to wake up,” Bell said. “It was like, ‘Where’s the flag! Where’s something?’ ”

Everything was ground into the faded Orange Bowl turf under the cleats of the Miami offense.

A city’s national championship dreams. A school’s hopes of definitively changing its football reputation. The best chance that dozens of young men will ever have at making sports history.

“We’re going to remember this game forever,” Bell said softly, and so will anyone from Southern California who watched.

After more than three fist-smacking hours Saturday, Los Angeles lost a chance at yet another national sports title because another one of its teams couldn’t do the dirty work.

It is a recent national trend to poke fun at the Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, even Galaxy, all because of their inability to be as tough as necessary.

Folks will now fatten that stereotype with UCLA, saying about the Bruins what they say about all of us.

We’re soft. We like to gallop, not grind. We’re all showtime and no substance.

This is unfair to the greatness of Cade McNown and an offense that deserved the Fiesta Bowl and its national-championship riches.

But as a bright Florida afternoon turned dark and windy, the truth that has been seeping through the floor all season finally blew up the room.

The Bruins are saddled with a defense that doesn’t deserve any bowl game.

The Bruins are saddled with a defense that might have trouble with Long Beach Poly.

Said McNown: “We knew they would score every time they got the ball.”

Said Meyers: “I was ready to go in and play defensive line, I was so disgusted.”

Sitting in front of his locker, cornerback Marques Anderson was asked why.

“Hmmm . . . well . . . hmmmmm,” he said, shaking his head.

He could have been speaking for all of us, anyone who watched and was speechless that the Bruins could not win despite 670 total yards and five touchdown passes by the quarterback.

And speechless at the referee’s horrible call on an alleged Brad Melsby fumble at the Miami 26 with 3:24 remaining that gave the Hurricanes the fuel for their game-winning drive.

Replays clearly show Melsby was down before he fumbled. Meyers said it wasn’t even that close.

“It took all my self-control not to punch the ref in the face,” he said.

Blame the referees for that play, but don’t blame them for the loss.

The referees didn’t allow the Hurricanes to then easily drive 74 yards in eight plays--forcing them to third down only once--in what should have been the most important defensive stand of the season.

“I missed tackle, after tackle, after tackle,” linebacker Ryan Nece said.

The referees also didn’t blow a 38-21 lead in the final 16 minutes.

Nor did the referees allow Miami’s touchdown drive at the end of the third quarter that started that comeback.

Four plays, 80 yards, 70 seconds, all runs.

“I can’t say nothing but it hurts, it hurts so bad,” Anderson said. “We knew what they were doing. We knew what they were doing. But for some reason, we couldn’t stop them.”

Finally, the referees didn’t get burned on the most embarrassing defensive play of a humiliating afternoon, when Aaron Moser caught only his third pass of the season for a four-yard touchdown to give Miami a 14-7 lead.

Embarrassing, because Moser was wide open on the play, because the Bruins only had 10 men on the field, because Anderson stayed on the sideline during confusion over the signals.

“I’m like, ‘Uh, guys, nobody is covering him,’ ” Meyers said. “But it was like that all afternoon. Their quarterback would roll out and he could throw to this guy, or this guy . . .

“There was so many guys open out there all the time, we were lucky they didn’t score 60.”

It certainly wasn’t all Anderson’s fault, or the total fault of any of his teammates.

Despite defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti’s public apology, it also wasn’t only his fault.

Meyers may have unwittingly offered the best explanation for the lost afternoon and ruined dreams when he grabbed the shoulder of an assistant coach.

“Now go recruit,” he said.

Bob Toledo is an offensive whiz who has recruited great offensive players and a great offensive coordinator and nearly pulled off the perfect offensive game against Miami.

Now that he has encountered a situation in which none of that matters, maybe the focus will change.

Maybe the man who has even said that offense wins games and defense keeps you from getting beaten will undergo an off-season change in philosophy.

Keep bringing in big linemen and true linebackers. Don’t be afraid to put a good offensive talent on the other side of the ball.

Toledo’s voice rose above those serenading Miami fans Saturday in the Bruin locker room.

“I’m sick,” he told his players. “I’m just sick.”

Join the club.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected]