Nevada at UNLV Final Statistics

		1	2	3	4	T
#25	NEV	7	21	10	6	44
	UNLV	7	7	3	9	26

Ok, this game could have gone much, much worse; in fact, there were plenty of times that Nevada's defense and, especially, special teams did their best to make it worse.  I would like to refer to the previous post in this regard: live blogging, while having the downside of being loaded with the emotions of the moment, has the real advantage of pointing out flaws as they happen lest we forget some of the more poignant points while covering all of the statistics in analysis.

Team Stat Comparison

	Nevada	UNLV
1st Downs	29	15
3rd down efficiency	4-7	5-12
4th down efficiency	1-2	0-0
Total Yards	516	294
Passing	142	214
Comp-Att	14-19	14-23
Yards per pass	7.1	8.2
Rushing	374	80
Rushing Attempts	50	33
Yards per rush	7.5	2.4
Penalties	5-61	10-132
Turnovers	3	2
Fumbles lost	2	1
Interceptions thrown	1	1
Possession	32:35	27:25

(Stats courtesy of espn.com)

There are a lot of good figures there, really.  Nevada completed 14 of 19 passes (73.68%); the Water Thieving Bas----s went 14-23 (60.87%).  I like the positive differential there, and the fact that they only attempted 23 passes.  Now, let's look at those passing statistics:

Nevada: 14 of 19 for 142 yards, a 7.5 yard average.
Nevada Southern: 14 of 23 for 214, a 9.3 yard average.
     Phillip Payne: 8 receptions for 170 yards, a 21.3 YPC average.

UNLV went into the game ranked 96th nationally in pass offense, averaging 170 yards per game - Payne had this by himself in this game (with a long of 65 yards!).  They were ranked 110th in total offense, averaging 284.5 yards per game - Nevada allowed them an additional 10.  At least Nevada held their 95tth-ranked rush offense under their average (114.5 YPG, vs. Nevada: 80 yards).  That's a good thing since someone needed to make up for special teams.

Speaking of:
Nevada kick returns: 4 for 81 yards, averaging 20.3 YPR with a long of 22 yards.
Nevada Southern kick returns: 6 for 228 yards, averaging 38 YPR with a long of 68.  (This, of course, not mentioning Tim Cornett's 58-yard kickoff return...oops, I mentioned it.)
Nevada Southern Return Yardage: 32, 22 (before penalty), 23, 68, 10 (before penalty), 25, kick OOB (give them 40 yards!), 58.
No Nevada kickoff went for a touchback, and the only return downed behind UNLV's own 20 was negated by a trademarked holding penalty, one kickoff went out of bounds, and one extra point was missed (for the first time this season).

Other figures: Nevada Southern came into the game ranked 95th nationally in points scored per game averaging 20.8 (and that only after running up 45 against the worst team in D 1-A) - Nevada gave up 26.  Nevada turned over the ball three times to UNLV's two, which isn't all that bad when you consider that turnover margin is the one thing Nevada Southern has done well this year.  Nice to see Brandon Marshall's interception; it's just too bad that time expired at the half.

UNLV also entered the game ranked 57th in pass defense, allowing 197.8 YPG; I won't harp on this one, seeing as Nevada attempted 19 total passes to ornament 50 rush attempts.

One thing I will harp on, though: Nevada entered the game ranked 4th nationally in total offense, UNLV ranked 66th in total defense.  UNLV's defense manhandled the Pack's Union almost all night long.  There were some nice moments in there, but Nevada Southern's defense was, often enough, moving them at will and getting decent penetration more often than necessary.  Watching the Union thus far this season I can only think they must have expected their opponent to be a complete push over (Punny, no? No.); only thing is they never fully recovered.  Don't get me wrong, now, they got in some good licks there; however, there were far too many plays where they were molded like clay.

Some (other) good figures:
UNLV went into the game ranked 66th nationally in YPG at 359; Nevada earned 516 total yards.
UNLV went into the game ranked 75th nationally in rush defense, allowing 161.3 YPG: Nevada raked in 374 (again, on 50 attempts).

There is one important thing to remember when considering these stats: they played one of the worst teams in the nation in their house in a rivalry game the first week after becoming nationally ranked.  As much as Ault and the rest of the staff drills the importance of the game, not taking their opponent for granted, and forgetting about the ranking altogether, these are college kids and there's no way all three of those factors aren't in their heads.  Yes, maybe coaching could step it up a bit and do better here...maybe.  First time the Wolf Pack has been ranked in 62 years?  I'm willing to cut them a little slack...I mean, the cannon is still blue, after all.

With that in mind, I'm glad the whole team has a nice tune-up next week, coming home to play San Jose State for homecoming (Punny, no?  No.), all three phases of the game are going to need it.


Props to Dan Hinxman who predicted an alarmingly close 41-27 Nevada victory...scary.

 

The Boston Molasses Disaster has NOTHING on UNLV football.