Despite five turnovers, UA wins 27-13

TUCSON -- It wasn’t pretty, but the Arizona Wildcats got the job done.

Arizona (5-2, 3-1 Pac-10) overcame five turnovers to defeat the UCLA (3-4, 0-4) Bruins 27-13 at Arizona Stadium last night.

“All the turnovers we had tonight were troublesome, but I’m glad that we were able to pull through this so convincingly,” said head coach Mike Stoops.

Arizona dominated the game statistically, out-gaining UCLA 456 to 211 and claiming an 11-minute time-of-possession advantage, but the Bruins stayed in the game, thanks to Arizona’s miscues.

Quarterback Nick Foles had his roughest outing as a starter, but still made more than enough plays to keep the offense moving. Foles completed 22 of 34 passes for 247 yards and two scores, but threw a career-high three interceptions, all before halftime.

Foles came into the game as the nation’s completion-percentage leader at 73.9 percent and had thrown only two picks in 116 attempts.

But Foles had yet to face a defense with a playmaker as talented as UCLA’s Rahim Moore. The sophomore safety picked off Foles twice. Moore leads the nation with seven interceptions.

Out of those three picks, however, Foles only threw one terrible pass. Moore’s first-quarter interception happened after Foles hit David Douglas on the hands on a long post route, but Douglas short-armed the ball, tipping it into Moore’s welcoming arms.

The second interception was definitely Foles’ fault, as he threw it well behind Terrell Turner on the goal line. Moore had no problem snagging that one.

The third interception happened right before halftime. Foles was hit as he threw, popping the ball up and into the outstretched arms of defensive tackle Jerzy Siewierski.

“Nick was not at his best tonight,” Stoops said. “I’m not making excuses for him, and he isn’t either, but it seems like he’s probably a little under the weather. Despite all the good, he made quite a few careless choices and there is definitely some room for him to improve.”

But the turnover problem extended beyond Foles. On the first play of the second half, Greg Nwoko fumbled the handoff, setting up UCLA’s second Kai Forbath field goal.

UCLA’s lone touchdown came on a controversial fumble call. Foles tried to hit Terrell Turner on a quick out, but Akeem Ayers jumped the route and nearly picked it off. The officials ruled that the pass was actually a lateral, and Ayers didn’t quit on the play, carrying the ball into the end zone.

However, these turnovers weren’t enough to compensate for UCLA’s putrid showing on offense.

The Bruins managed only 10 first downs. Freshman starter Kevin Prince went 7-15 for 60 yards before he was replaced by senior Kevin Craft early in the third quarter. Craft didn’t fare much better, completing only six of 17 passes for 75 yards. UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel even went to third-string quarterback Richard Brehaut to try to find a spark, but nothing was working.

After giving up 38 points and 584 yards of total offense in last week’s comeback win over Stanford, Arizona’s defense bounced back in a big way last night.

“Mark [Stoops] did a great job game-planning this week, and the kids did a great job executing it,” Stoops said.

He added that the defense’s pride had been hurt after such a woeful outing against the Cardinal. The Wildcats answered by forcing two turnovers of their own and sacking Prince three times.

Arizona’s main weakness on defense has been establishing a consistent pass rush, but the Wildcats spent much of the game knocking either Prince or Craft to the turf. Earl Mitchell had a terrific outing at defensive tackle, with Cam Nelson, Sterling Lewis and Xavier Kelley getting in on the hard-hitting action.

The Bruins managed only 65 yards on the ground, with Jonathan Franklin being held to 39 yards on nine carries.

Arizona’s rushing attack came from all angles, with eight different players getting carries. Nic Grigsby and Nwoko each left the game in the third quarter due to injury, but Arizona did most of its rushing damage with a variety of reverses and end-arounds. Wideouts Delashaun Dean (45 rushing yards), Juron Criner (39) and Terrell Turner (14) each had big carries.

Criner, in particular, had another strong day, adding 85 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He opened the scoring with a 41-yard bomb in the first quarter and scored again midway through the third quarter on a quick out he broke for 25 yards.

Keola Antolin had his best game of the season, gaining 79 yards on 16 carries. He was key in helping Arizona kill the clock in the fourth quarter.

Former starter Matt Scott saw the field for one play, but nearly threw an interception on a quick out intended for Turner.

Arizona is off this week as it prepares for its Nov. 7 homecoming game with Washington State (1-6, 0-5) at 1:30 p.m.

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