A win is a win, and I'll take it.
From an offensive standpoint...well, I'm just not sure what to say. The Pack was 3-11 (27%) on 3rd down, 1-2 on 4th (50%), was 12-21 through the air (57%), averaging 8.8 yards per completion, and averaged 6.4 yards on 49 carries. It is hard to argue with totals (184 passing, 312 rushing = 496), but that 3rd down conversion rate is a tangible figure to underscore what appeared to be a team playing rather uninspired football.
In all, Nevada's passing yardage (184) was nearly 29 points fewer than Hawai'i was allowing going into the game (212.875) [FWIW: UNLV gained the most yardage through the air vs. Hawai'i with 340], although it was on par for the Pack's average (185.429). Nevada's rushing yardage (312) was nearly 113 MORE than Hawai'i opponents were earning prior to this game (199.143), and just a handful fewer than their own average (320.413).
It's not hard to imagine: last week a much ballyhooed 6-1 Idaho team, tied for the conference lead, came to Mackay and was thoroughly splattered like a proverbial gridiron pizza. This week a Hawai'i team, a dilapidated shell of its former self who finds itself bottom feeding in the WAC (quite an accomplishment when you consider the bottom half this season so far...the bottom FIVE all have losing records, and only LaTech has more than one conference win), lumbers into Mackay hampered by injuries and other peculiarities while the Pack is favored by 29 1/2. I reckon it's difficult at best to bring your "A" game under those circumstances, but, as they say, anything can happen on any given Saturday and that's why they play the game...in my opinion, coaching should have them hungry for another 70 points.
Hawai'i also did their part to help a lackluster Nevada team: one punt, for 10 yards, wound up turned over on downs. But another, for a delightful 7 yards (that's SEVEN...single digit) led to a Wolf Pack touchdown. Nevada was able to capitalize on two Moniz interceptions, and a 45 yard kickoff out of bounds by Scott Enos also helped the Pack find the endzone.
The defense made some improvements: they held Hawai'i to 4-11 on third down (36%) and 0-2 on 4th down (0%). For all that can be said for the defense this season, those stops were diference makers. They also kept the "big" plays to a minimum: one Hawai'i TD pass went for 71 yards in the first quarter. Beyond that, Hawai'i went 29 of 49; except for the 71-yard touchdown, no pass went for over 23 yards, although they had four over 20 (20, 23, 23, 21). In order, passing yardage went thusly: 20, 23, 8, 9, 18, 71, 12, 13, 6, 8, 7, 10, 18, -1, 7, 4, 12, 5, 12, 11, 9, 23, 0, 19, 5, 21, 10, 4, 7, 2. Nevada sacked Moniz twice, but never really seemed to be too serious about puting real pressure on their quarterback.
Hawai'i also managed to rush the ball 20 times for an average of 5.9 yards per carry; three carrys went for double-digit gains. In Hawai'i's fourth-quarter scoring drive, 80 yards, the Warriors ran 12 plays with only two incompletions; they ran six consecutive plays for positive yardage, and of those six, they ran four consecutive running plays of 17, 5, 7, and 1 yards, respectively.
In all, Hawai'i's passing yardage (374) was 20 higher than their season average (354) in seven games, and over 74 higher than Nevada's opponent's average (299.714); their rushing total (118) was just over 43 higher than their previous season average, and just over four yards higher than the Nevada defense was allowing prior to the game.
Nevada also had fewer penalties, although for more yardage, earning 6 for -63 yards, to Hawai'i's 8 for -60. Hawai'i penalties were mostly procedural. Nevada earned 2 Illegal blocks and an illegal formation, along with the usual compliment of procedurals. The Pack was able to gain retribution in the second quarter for two penalties, a ten-yard hold and the 5-yard illegal formation, in both cases by scoring touchdowns on the ensuing play: Taua's 30-yard TD reception and Kaep's 38-yard TD run.
But, long story short, Nevada didn't look like a team sharing the conference lead; Nevada didn't even look like a top 1/3 team: 14 points off of turnovers, and another 14 off of spectacular special teams play, and those crucial Hawai'i mistakes made the game for Nevada, helping the Pack score 28 of their 31 points.
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I think so far we have been lucky that our opponents are playing so lousy. We should have mopped up with Hawaii on Sat and we did not. The offense was not in sync, and our Dbacks again were lousy. Yes I know they had two interceptions but they give up way to many completions when they shouldnt. We allowed Hawaii to throw for more yards than their average this season. A win is a win but I hope the coaches can get their act together and start working on fundamentals football.
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