Readers Get Points Across, Even if the Bruins Couldn’t

With all 11 Washington State defenders converging to the inside, UCLA’s final play on the goal line wouldn’t have worked had it been run by Jim Brown in his prime. Thus, for The Times to devote all that space in Tuesday’s edition to Bill Plaschke’s article about whether Coach Bob Toledo should have called time and asked Skip Hicks if he could suck it up one more time and win the game demonstrates once again your penchant for the contrived human interest factor over quality coverage of sporting events and their aftermath.

The question Plaschke should have been asking Toledo was why he didn’t call the option and watch Cade McNown walk into the end zone.

BART ROBERTSON

Torrance

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Enough already about whether Skip Hicks should have been in the game on the last play, whether time out should have been called, or if Lewis scored on the previous pass play. These points are irrelevant when one considers that the game was lost by Coach Toledo with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter. When he called for a two-point conversion, which failed, his team was behind by 10 points rather than nine.

Had a one-point conversion been made in the third quarter, the Bruins could have kicked a chip-shot field goal to win the game by one point.

Toledo made a rather desperate (statistically unsound) call with more than 17 minutes to be played. No NFL coach with a future would have considered such a thing.

DON ROWLAND

Camarillo

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Dear Coach Toledo,

Gambling on the one-foot line is OK with the game on the line, but next time, make sure you play your best card.

RICHARD SCHMITTDIEL

Glendale

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Having been a major UCLA fan all my life, I was in a state of shock watching the Tennessee victory over Texas Tech and the Bruins’ loss to Washington State.

I really dread watching the Bruins today.

RAY SACKHEIM

Rancho Santa Fe

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If, as William Platt suggests in his letter [‘We’re 6-5, Darn It, and That’s Good Enough,” Aug. 30], UCLA should hire a coach only to make glowing predictions of his team’s success, instead of realistic assessments, perhaps we should have hired John Robinson.

BRIAN K. LOWE

Tarzana