Saturday October 9, 2010
Aloha Stadium, HI
93* Humid Winds SSE 6 mph
The Nevada game was a shootout to say the least. I knew we got lucky at Fresno State, although I hoped for another decisive win, I knew I wouldnt get
that lucky again. The Wolfpack secondary caused a lot of issues in my pass attack, they played a fantastic zone coverage. In fact, I would go as far to say it's the best zone defense I have seen all season.
Their corners are extremely quick, playing loose at first, but once the ball was in the air, they closed on our recievers in a big hurry!. They picked off Byrant Moniz twice in the first quarter, then capitalized on each turnover with a score. Heading into the second quarter, we were down 14-0. Aside from their awesome pass coverage, their defensive line did an awesome job with penetrating and causing issues in the backfield. The first half was all theirs. I honestly thought we were about to be given our first conference loss. We were finally able to get on the board in the closing seconds of the first half with a hard earned 12 yard TD run by Alex Green.
The second half would be every bit of the dogfight as the first half. Senior WR Greg Salas took the opening kickoff of the second half, all the way down to the Nevada 35. From that point on we had to fight tooth and nail for every yard. We eventually scored on a 8 yard swing pass to Green, only to have Nevada return the kick back to our 30. Wolfpack tailback Vai Tua accomplished what no other opposing tailback has done this season. He broke off a 15 yard run on his first carry and then another 17 yard carry off left tackle for the score, evening the table at 14. Tua finished with the most rushing yards we have given up all season by a single back. Tua posted 86 yards on 14 carries.
The rest of game was the same result, trading punches. Every time we scored, they scored. The fourth quarter would decide the game, as Green found more and bigger holes to run through, scoring two touchdowns and 78 yards in the fourth quarter alone. The final result was a 34-24 win for us.
One of their scores in the fourth was a wayyy to easy 93 yard kick off return for the score, we missed several tackles and got burned. This was a surprise as our special teams have played great all season. I pretty much abandoned the passing game in the second half as it seemed almost every pass was deflected and nearly picked off. Moniz finished the day, going 4/16 93 yards 2 picks and a score. Alex Green is a sturdy back at 6'0 225 and has been a workhorse all season. He finished with 186 yards on 29 carries, catching a pass for a touchdown and 3 rushing touchdowns.
Nevada is a great team without a doubt, they bottled up our defensive line, giving Colin Kaepernick all the time in the world to find his recievers. In the end, Kaepernick finished with 217 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, their line was much smaller than us but made up for it in athleticism. In insant replay, I seen their defensive ends, particularly Dante Mach, bolt right past us off the snap. Mach posted 3 sacks, and 2 tackles for loss.
I feel our huge fourth quarter was a result of using a two back rotation of Chize Demude and Alex Green, running at them and wearing them down. We got lucky! It was one of the best games we have had all season. Next week we head to Logan,Utah to face the Utah State Utes in another WAC battle. After this game, the awards finalists will be announced, and I will be stunned if Alex Green isnt up there somewhere. The Nevada game put him over the 1,000 yard mark at 1,039 yards after just 7 games into the season. After the Utes, we have a hard stretch with Boise State (a perennial WAC powerhouse) and San Jose State. The Nevada game wasn't pretty but a win is a win!