There’s No Preventing Bruin Despair

After the latest football debacle against Arizona State, this disheartened, distraught Bruin loyalist is forced to ponder the following depressing realizations:

* UCLA has lost five of its last seven games.

* UCLA is already out of the race in a mediocre Pac-10 after only two conference games.

* Last year was a fluke, in that UCLA was a miracle defensive play (Stanford) and a miracle offensive play (Oregon) from having been an also-ran.

* UCLA has made, in the three losses, three quarterbacks look like Steve Young (Ohio State), Dan Marino (Stanford) and John Elway (Arizona State). USC’s Mike Van Raaphorst must be licking his chops.

* The defense is not any better than last year’s and can’t be trusted, especially the secondary.

* Cory Paus and Drew Bennett are no Cade McNowns.

* We will probably lose to USC for the first time in my 8-year-old daughter’s life.

Most discouraging of all:

* For the first time in Bob Toledo’s tenure as head coach, in the ASU game, I saw his team play not to lose, instead of to win.

RON NAKAMURA, Duarte

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I don’t understand why defensive philosophy changes so much when trying to protect a lead. UCLA’s case was particularly bad, because with the prevent, you concede plays and rely on tackling. It was evident during the last two quarters that UCLA can’t tackle, so calling this defense is like handing the other team the victory.

Funny thing, that’s exactly what happened.

MATT CRAVETS, Simi Valley