Cade McNown seemed to have nowhere to hide.

The UCLA quarterback was flushed left, pinned to the right and entombed in the middle.

He was the prized possession the Arizona defense was out to recover - a marked man that a once-ridiculed UA defense was out to prove something with.

"Once they stopped the running game, there wasn't much that we could do," McNown said. "They were definitely coming at me."

Arizona recorded five sacks for a loss of 30 yards, but the constant pressure in the sophomore's face was what caused all the frustration. Arizona blitzed him from between the guards and used cornerbacks and safeties coming to pressure him from the outside. McNown was hurried 12 times, knocked down eight more - without counting the sacks - and rode like a horse once. That came courtesy of a Mikal Smith sack in the final minutes.

McNown was taken out on a late drive, but his replacement, Steve Buck, was put into a Van Tuinei-Jimmy Sprotte sandwich that torqued his neck to the point that the Bruin bench was wincing.

"That is not exactly how I pictured it," Buck said of his lone play. "They can hit."

McNown returned to fumble the ball away when Chester Burnett tried to enter his facemask. The lack of fulfillment could not have been pointed out more than by the way he gingerly walked to the shower, still fuming about the game.

"When there is no room to move around, that will constrict your mobility just a little," McNown said in a sarcastic tone. "What can you do? Just get up and do it again the next time."

"We obviously were outplayed by an Arizona team that worked hard," UCLA coach Bob Toledo said. "They kicked our butts."

Arizona's defense allowed only 275 total yards, 205 of them in the air. Last week the Wildcats surrendered 462. UCLA's Skip Hicks was held to 40 yards under his average, and his 2.3 yards per carry were second only to McNown in futility.

"It was a comedy of errors," Toledo said, shaking his head. "We just did not execute. They wore us down. It was ugly."

The Bruins were even leading 14-7 at half, but Toledo had long forgotten.

"It was really frustrating," he said. "They out-physicalled us and it showed."

Coming into the game the Bruins were still talking about a possible bowl berth. If they beat Arizona, a win over rival Southern Cal would have meant a chance to play in the Aloha Bowl.

"SC is SC, so it will be easy to get up for next week, but this really killed us," McNown said.

"Arizona is a good team," UCLA linebacker Brian Willmer said. "They got to our quarterback more than we did theirs. They executed."

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