BRUINS MAY END UP CAR-POOLING.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

The Huskies definitely got run over Saturday. But by what?

Afterward, some of the glassy-eyed victims seemed to think it was a Geo Metro while others said, no way, it was definitely a Mercedes.

Frankly, the UCLA football team doesn't care how posh or pedestrian it looks, so long as it keeps up with the traffic in college football's fast lane. The Bruins' engine may cough and sputter but it looks more and more like UCLA just might make it all the way to Tempe, Ariz., for the national title game after all.

On a day in which two previously undefeated teams, Wisconsin and Arkansas, limped over to the shoulder with flats, the Bruins hightailed it out of Husky Stadium with a 36-24 win to keep their unblemished record intact.

Go ahead and laugh at the 248 net yards rushing the Bruins' defense yielded or the five field goals the offense had to settle for.

Feel free to roll your eyes like Washington senior Nigel Burton did when asked if the Huskies had just played the best team in the country. To his credit, Burton didn't articulate what was written on his face, unlike a certain Cal receiver had done earlier.

``I'm not going to be Dameane Douglas,'' he said, ``and be a jackass.''

Oh, why not? The Bruins don't care if you make a face like you've just smelled a skunk, as Washington receiver Gerald Harris did when asked if the Bruins were the best team he has faced this year.

The Bruins don't need your stinking approval. Their 19 consecutive wins, including nine this season, is approbation enough for them. Even if they don't win either of their two remaining games, against USC on Saturday and at Miami two weeks after that, they've locked up their first Pacific-10 title in five years.

So, they ask you, who's going to be laughing last?

``People can say whatever they want,'' said Bruins cornerback Marques Anderson. ``But it's hard to go nine and oh. I think we rise to the occasion. And getting a Rose Bowl berth is sweet. It's hard to blemish that.''

Anderson's day started out bleaker than the weather, which went from wonderful to woebegone as the afternoon wore on (paralleling the fortunes of the hometown team).

Anderson was badly singed on the Huskies' first play from scrimmage when quarterback Brock Huard lofted a perfect pass to Andre DeSaussure for a 53-yard gain that moved the chains to the UCLA 24.

The Huskies had to be content with a field goal after UCLA linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo deflected Huard's pass on third-and-four from the Bruins 18. That's the way the Bruins' defense operated all afternoon. For all the bending it did, it refused to snap.

Time and again UCLA hiked up its pressure on Huard just when the Huskies seemed to be gaining momentum, hurrying the veteran quarterback into converting only five-of-13 third-down plays.

Anderson recovered from his rough start to make seven tackles, six of them unassisted. His resilience personifies a Bruins team that has managed all season to extricate itself from the tightest of situations. The evasiveness of the Bruins' offense, in particular, would make Houdini proud.

Under quarterback Cade McNown's direction, UCLA converted nine of its 18 third-down plays, oftentimes emphatically. There were passes of 61 and 22 yards to Danny Farmer, another of 28 yards to Brad Melsby and an 18-yard run by Keith Brown.

For the season, the Bruins have a 44 percent success rate on third downs. That goes a long way toward explaining why they remain unbeaten. So does this: in 44 trips inside their opponents' 20-yard line, the Bruins have 31 touchdowns and eight field goals. They were 5-for-5 in the red zone Saturday, with two touchdowns and three field goals.

``Their offense is nice,'' said the Huskies' Harris. ``Their offense might be the best we've faced.''

USC's offense, with the precocious Carson Palmer at the helm and speedsters R. Jay Soward and Billy Miller at his disposal, is no slouch. Washington succumbed to the Trojans 33-10 in L.A. on Halloween and, from what he saw Saturday, Harris thinks the Bruins could be in for a fright Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

To beat USC, he said, the Bruins' defense ``is going to have to really step up.''

Yeah, responded UCLA defensive end Kenyon Coleman, so what's his point?

Coleman acknowledged that the no-huddle offense the Huskies started using in the second quarter got the Bruins back on their heels, thus making it easier for running backs Willie Hurst and Braxton Cleman to fly by as if on winged feet.

Hurst finished with 114 yards rushing and Cleman had 100. On the plus side, the Bruins held Washington to 203 yards passing, 33 yards below its average.

``Of course we can't play the way we played today against `SC,'' Coleman said. ``Our defensive effort wasn't 100 percent. We have to keep improving every week. We know that.''

USC has had its motor idling for a week so you know the Trojans can't wait to gun it Saturday. The Bruins are rolling up on USC with ample momentum, this game having revved their engines. So it could be quite a spark-filled spectacle, this drag race for L.A. bragging rights.

``SC's got great athletes. They might even have better athletes than UCLA,'' said Washington offensive lineman Ben Kadletz, formerly of La Canada's St. Francis. ``But UCLA has a lot of momentum. They're (winning) week in and week out. Great teams find a way.''

That's precisely the point the Bruins have been trying to drive home. Oh well. Two more wins and no one will care if they toot their own horns.