A series worthy of sweeps week.

Byline: BOB CLARK The Register-Guard

In two of the games, the trailing team was stopped a yard short of the end zone as time ran out. Another time, the winning points came on a field goal to finish overtime, by a kicker who missed on the final play of regulation.

That also happened last year, when a UCLA field-goal attempt on the last play of the fourth quarter was wide right, and Oregon won 21-20.

That's four Oregon games against UCLA in the Rose Bowl since Mike Bellotti became head coach of the Ducks in 1995, and four games decided on the final play.

Drama? This series deserves an Emmy. Does anybody wonder why ABC decided to pick up the option on Saturday's game for a 12:30 p.m. telecast?

`There have been some nail-biters, some near heart attacks on my part, and I was just watching it,' said UO quarterback Jason Fife, a sideline observer at the 1999 and 2001 games in the Rose Bowl.

In the four games, the Ducks and Bruins each have two wins. They have each scored 126 points. They've each gone on to a league title because of their victory in the game, UCLA in 1998 when the Bruins triumphed 41-38 and Oregon last season, after that one-point win.

One game was the first college start for a great college quarterback, UCLA's Cade McNown in 1995, when the Ducks won 38-31. Another meeting, in 1999, marked the last time Joey Harrington, also a great college quarterback, didn't play in an Oregon game until this season, and that was UCLA's last win over the Ducks, 34-29.

Every starting quarterback in the past four UCLA-Oregon games in Pasadena has gone on to play in the NFL, except Cory Paus, the current Bruin quarterback. All he's done against the Ducks is throw for 332 yards in 1999 and 321 last year, for two of his six 300-yard college performances.

Well, until this week, of course.

`Cory Paus is playing very, very good football,' UO coach Mike Bellotti said. `They have very good balance and can spread the ball around, much like I hope we can do.'

And as both have in these past four meetings. The losing team in each meeting has had no fewer than 438 yards of total offense, and the average combined total for the two teams is 896 yards. There have been 82 points scored in the fourth quarters of the four games, and that includes a game when the Bruins didn't score in the final 15 minutes ... but won.

Asked Monday about his four games as a head coach in the Rose Bowl, Bellotti said `you'll have to remind me. I barely remember last year.'

Well, there was coming up a yard short of a win in 1999 ...

`I do remember that,' Bellotti said with a grimace.

Now, they come back, win or lose, and it's been a split.

`I think it points to the parity in the conference and the parity in this matchup,' Bellotti said. `It's always a close, hard-fought game that goes down to the wire, and that's what everybody would like to see ... except maybe the coaches.'

In order, the last four UO visits to the Rose Bowl:

1995: Bellotti's first Pac-10 game as a head coach matched the 20th-ranked Ducks against the No. 12 Bruins.

Each team had a quarterback question, but Tony Graziani was healthy enough to play for the Ducks and the Bruins decided to go with true freshman McNown in his first collegiate start. Both had their moments, and the winning score came when Graziani passed to Cristin McLemore with 1:02 remaining, putting the Ducks up 38-31.

But wait; back came the Bruins. McNown completed two long passes and the Bruins were first-and-goal at the UO 3 with 32 seconds left. McNown was stopped after a yard on a keeper, and UCLA used its last timeout. The freshman quarterback threw incomplete on consecutive downs, taking the outcome down to fourth down with two seconds left.

UCLA chose to run Karim Abdul-Jabbar, the league's leading rusher, on a sweep to the left but UO defensive backs Jaiya Figueras and LaMont Woods joined lineman Desmond Byrd to stop Abdul-Jabbar a yard short.

1998: What could top that game? This game.

`It was one of those games you hope your whole life you get to play in,' UO linebacker Aaron Cheuvront would say when it ended.

It was all of that when the second-ranked Bruins played host to the 11th-ranked Ducks, and prevailed 41-38 in overtime on Chris Sailer's 24-yard field goal.

That came after Sailer missed a 21-yard attempt on the final play of regulation, which came after both the Bruins and Ducks had scored in the game's final 2 1/2 minutes, in a last quarter that saw the teams combine for four touchdowns behind McNown and Akili Smith, on their way to being first-round draft picks in the NFL.

In overtime, two sacks and an interception on a desperation pass on fourth down meant no points for Oregon, and the Bruins popped through their field goal for the victory.

1999: The Ducks trailed 34-10 entering the fourth quarter, but Matt Smith's 81-yard interception return ignited a comeback that produced 19 Oregon points in 186 seconds, pulling Oregon within 34-29 with still 11 minutes to play.

The Ducks couldn't score on their next three possessions, but UCLA couldn't expand its lead either. Oregon started a final drive at its 11 with 1:16 left, and no timeouts.

A.J. Feeley completed 5-of-8 passes, the last a 21-yard throw to a diving Marshaun Tucker. He hit the field a yard short of the end zone, with a couple of Bruins on top, and the game ended.

2001: After the Bruins took a 20-14 lead in the fourth quarter, it was Harrington leading the Ducks on another comeback, this time for a 21-20 advantage on a scoring pass to Josh Line with 9:56 remaining.

So much time ... and it still went down to the last play.

Paus completed passes for 8 and 19 yards, and the Bruins had a first down at the UO 48-yard line. Three runs by Akil Harris earned another first down at the 38. Then it was an incomplete pass, a Harris run for 5 yards and another run for no gain as the Bruins decided to settle for a long field goal attempt.

Chris Griffith's 50-yard attempt on the final play was wide right, leaving the last four games all even in results, points and disappointment.

What last-play drama is left for this Saturday?

WARS AT THE ROSE

RESULT: Oregon 2 wins, UCLA 2 wins

TOTAL SCORE: Oregon 126, UCLA 126

AVERAGE MARGIN: 4 points

RANKINGS: Entering the games in '95, '98, '99 and '01, Oregon was 20th, 11th, unranked and sixth, respectively; Bruins in those years were 12th, second, unranked and 17th.

TV AND TIME CHANGE: Oregon's game against Arizona State on Oct. 19 wasn't selected for telecast by either of the networks, but UO officials are looking into whether the game can be shown locally.

To air the game live on the Oregon Sports Network, either the Pac-10 would have to grant an exemption - which is extremely unlikely - for an afternoon telecast that would compete with other Pac-10 games being televised, or the starting time would have to be changed to the evening.

The Pac-10 games chosen by the networks for Oct. 19 were a 12:30 p.m. game for ABC between Washington and USC and a 4 p.m. contest for TBS between UCLA and California.

HONORED DUCKS: Oregon's players of the week for practice and performance in the game at Arizona were tailback Onterrio Smith and center Dan Weaver on offense; safety Keith Lewis and tackle Haloti Ngata on defense; and kicker Jared Siegel for special teams.

For the UO scout teams, named as the outstanding players by the coaches were receiver Kellen Taylor and lineman Dan Johnson on offense, end Chris Solomona and linebacker Jonathan Levine on defense and Kevin Mack and Brent Haberly for special teams.

NEXT GAME: Saturday at UCLA at 12:30 p.m. TV: Live on ABC; delayed on Oregon Sports Network at 11:30 p.m.