UNLV Rebels @ Nevada Wolf Pack Football Recap

Nevada 37, UNLV 0

The UNLV Rebels left Reno, Nevada with a continued streak—a bad streak, maybe the worst streak a team can have.

The Rebels are now losers of seven straight to their in-state rival, the Nevada Wolf Pack, and those seven losses have come by an average of 22 points. Nevada moved to 2-3 with a dominating whitewash of UNLV, as the Rebels fell to 1-4 on the season… a noticeably ugly 1-4, to be sure.

If anything, UNLV should feel lucky that the scoreboard tally wasn’t worse. At the end of the game, the Wolf Pack had outgained the Rebels 699 yards to just 110, a frankly breathtaking disparity between two teams who will share the same conference (the Mountain West) next season. UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring finished going 1-of-14 for 8 yards and one interception, completing passes at a rate that only Ohio State quarterback Joe Bauserman (1 for 10 as a passer this weekend against Nebraska) or Maryland signal caller C.J. Brown (4 for 17 this past weekend in backup duty against Georgia Tech) could realistically appreciate. The only thing that tempered the blowout was Nevada’s five turnovers, including three interceptions between quarterbacks Tyler Lantrip and Cody Fajardo. Just process that simple fact: Nevada committed five turnovers and still pitched a shutout. That’s how impotent UNLV’s offense was. All the sudden-change situations in the world and all the favorable shifts in field position couldn’t produce even one field goal for the visiting Rebels, who were devoured by the Wolf Pack’s defense from the opening kickoff to the merciful final gun.

It took a while for the game to get going, as the two teams combined for three turnovers in the first six minutes of play. Nevada opened up the game midway through the second quarter when Lantrip connected on a 90-yard touchdown pass to Rishard Matthews. The Wolf Pack scored again on its next drive when Lantrip hit Corbin Louks on a 34-yard touchdown pass to stretch its lead to 17-0. It was Louks's first touchdown since 2008 when he was the backup quarterback at the University of Utah. Nevada added a field goal at the end of the half, and the Pack would add to that 20-0 lead throughout the course of the second half. In the hands of West Virginia's or Oklahoma's offense, this would have been a 65-point game. Nevada had to "settle" for a margin of "only" 37 points.

Lantrip would finish with the line of 18-for-29 for 366 yards and three touchdowns. Fajardo was 11-of-15 for 93 yards as well, while Stefphon Jefferson added 100 rushing yards on 17 carries to lend ballast to the home team's ground game.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer