EL PASO, Texas – On the first four kickoffs, it seemed Northwestern’s special teams troubles had vanished – they shut down both return man extraordinaire Maurice Drew and his backup, Rodney Van.

Aside from deep kickoffs, though, the Wildcats continued their special teams struggles in NU’s 50-38 Sun Bowl loss to No. 17 UCLA.

Senior punter Ryan Pederson averaged just 31 yards per punt, almost 10 yards below his season average.

Junior kicker Joel Howells, a reliable kicker for most of the season who was named Big Ten special teams player of the week twice, missed two extra points (one blocked) and had a low field goal kick blocked. He also sent consecutive onside kicks directly into the arms of UCLA’s Brandon Breazell, who returned each for touchdowns.

“It was one of those days, I guess,” Walker said of Howells. In the second half, Walker replaced Howells with redshirt freshman Amado Villarreal, who connected on an extra point and a 31-yard field goal with 4:40 left in the third quarter, and those were the first points of his career.

But Walker was slow to call on Villarreal.

At the end of the first half, senior quarterback Brett Basanez completed a tipped, 45-yard pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Ross Lane as time expired. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Brigham Harwell gave NU one more play, from the UCLA 4-yard line. Instead of kicking a short field goal that would have cut NU’s deficit to 29-25, Walker chose to go for a touchdown.

Basanez’s pass sailed over junior wide receiver Shaun Herbert’s head.

“I had decided by that time to make a change at kicker,” Walker said, “and I didn’t have the chance to get (Villarreal) ready.”

STARS STRUCK

UCLA scored 50 points and amassed 453 yards, all while its trio of stars – quarterback Drew Olson, running back Maurice Drew and tight end Marcedes Lewis – struggled.

Lewis caught no official passes, hauling in only a two-point conversion in the second quarter.

Drew, who left the game in the first quarter with an injury but returned in the second quarter, finished with 14 yards on three carries. He also returned one punt for 20 yards and two kickoffs for 33 yards.

Olson completed 10 of 24 passes for 143 yards, with three touchdowns and three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

“It was almost laughter (after the third interception),” Olson said. “It was almost a joke that it all was happening.”

Olson recovered, with much help from backup running backs Chris Markey and Kahlil Bell. Markey rushed 23 times for 150 yards and Bell ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.

“The idea going into this game was to run the ball, and we thought we could run it successfully,” Olson said. “Especially with Maurice down, the way those two guys came in was pretty sweet.”

INCHES TO GO

Redshirt freshman wideout Ross Lane caught seven passes for 136 yards, both career highs – Junior linebacker Nick Roach’s first-quarter interception, which he returned for a touchdown, was NU’s 20th of the season, tying a school record – Senior wide receiver Mark Philmore finished his career with a touchdown catch and a 19-yard touchdown run, the first of his career – Redshirt freshman defensive end Kevin Mims, who returned a first-quarter interception for a touchdown, earned a trophy as lineman of the game.

Reach Patrick Dorsey at [email protected].