It’s Big-Play Offense vs. Big-Play Defense

The temptation today is for Cade McNown to say over and over again in the UCLA huddle, “Bombs away!” or its playbook equivalent, “On one.”

For variety, “On two.”

With apologies to cinematic Wall Street maven Gordon Gecko, in football, greed can be good, and California’s defense invites it. The Bears, who are 13th-ranked UCLA’s homecoming opponent today at the Rose Bowl, have spent as much time chasing guys with footballs as tackling them.

Cal has given up 29 plays of 25 yards or longer in six games, 27 of those by a young defense.

Two of the plays were a 65-yard interception return and a blocked point-after kick returned for two points.

And lest anybody get an idea that experience helps, the sixth game was worse than the first.

Washington State’s Ryan Leaf threw touchdown passes of 54, 72, 57, 55 and 43 yards against the Bears a week ago in a 63-37 victory.

“We were down, 48-6, at halftime against Washington State and these crazy thoughts cross your mind, ‘If we don’t do something, it’s going to be 96-12,’ ” said Tom Holmoe, Cal’s first-year coach who is a bit embarrassed because his background is on defense, as a safety with the San Francisco 49ers and coordinator of the unit at Berkeley a year ago.

“We came out and played better in the second half. Certainly, they substituted, but we played better.”

The Bears, 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the Pacific 10, today will have to handle UCLA (5-2, 3-1), which has a five-game winning streak and leads the country in scoring. Quarterback McNown is fourth in the country in efficiency, a statistical combination of all things good in passing, at 166.0.

He didn’t get there by just standing back in the huddle and saying “Bombs away!” though the Bruins have had 42 plays of 21 yards or more in their seven games.

“No, I don’t think you can, because then you get out of your game plan, what you really want to do,” Bruin Coach Bob Toledo said. “I think there are some shots that you can take, some spots that you have to pick. But you’ve got to stick with a game plan and be patient with it and not get greedy.

“Sure, they’ve had some big plays against them, but they’re not always there.”

The UCLA game plan usually means run, run, then pass when you feel lucky, and the passing and McNown’s efficiency at it are largely predicated on the running game.

Actually, it’s run, run, then fake the run and throw. It’s called play action, and it works best when you can sell the run first.

It has been working very well lately.

“Playing a team like UCLA that does lead the country in scoring is just an awesome challenge for this defense,” Holmoe said.

The defensive lapses, he said, have been “very difficult to handle, because we’ve been in a few games this year where offensively we’ve outgained our opponent--Washington, Louisiana Tech, USC--and we were very close to Washington State.

“But we’re just giving up way, way, way too many plays on defense. I think our guys are giving a good effort, but some of the mistakes are mental and some of them are just physical mistakes where guys are pressing too much or just fail to make the play. It is very frustrating.”

Frustrating is the way UCLA began its season, with losses to Washington State, 37-34, and Tennessee, 30-24, in games the Bruins could have won. Since then, UCLA has played its way back into the Rose Bowl race, but even if the Bruins win out, they need some help to stay in Pasadena for New Year’s Day.

And winning out is going to be difficult. Part of the equation is disregarding anything that’s not going on in front of them each Saturday and letting the Rose Bowl run sort itself out.

“Each week it gets tougher,” Toledo said. “Each week the game gets bigger. Every time you win, you put pressure on yourself to win another one, and this is no exception.

“Obviously, we have a chance in winning this football game to have a winning record and improve on last year [when the Bruins were 5-6], and that’s one of the things I’m trying to do with this program. I’m trying to make progress.

“But we need to focus on ourselves. We are our own worst enemies, just like every football team is.”

Just as Cal has been, over and over again for the last four weeks.