SJSU vs. Nevada Recap

WOW

Talk about ugly.

The last 2 games have been far from pretty. I don’t know what has gotten into this team but I do not like it. We have been playing down to our opponents’ level. Last year we annihilated SJSU and this year we struggled to pull away? 8 penalties for 89 yards? Missing chip-shot field goals? Let’s get serious here, this is the BCS era, a win is not just another W unfortunately, there’s style points and computers involved.

Then there’s a trend developing that I really hate, any idea what it is? It’s Drake, not the rapper, the kid on the team. I wasn’t a fan of you last year, I started to like you a little this year, and then you go and kick a kickoff out of bounds in 3 consecutive games? Do me a favor and quit the team please. You have one job, probably the easiest on the team, kickoffs. Punters and place kickers have more demanding jobs. You kick from the SAME spot every time and you can’t even be consistent, well I guess you are consistent in giving the other team great field possession.

Our defense played extremely sloppy in the first half. It started looking like last year’s defense all over again. Against a team like SJSU, that’s unacceptable. A big shout out to Dontay Moch who had a hell of a night and became the WAC’s all-time leader in tackles for a loss (which they should have announced at the game by the ways). A record that will only stand ~5 years as I see the WAC as soon being non-existent, but still a record to be damn proud of.

Our offense played like it usually does, potent and methodical but struggling to get in the endzone in the second half reminiscent of what happened in Provo. What’s killing me is how we managed to put up 640 yards of offense but only scored 35 points?

What happened to that team that played Cal? If we continue to play the way we have the last 10 quarters we don’t stand a chance against Hawaii, Fresno, and definitely not Boise St. This team needs a drastic turn around, that bye week can't come soon enough it seems.

And a special message to the students in the endzone section who started chanting “underrated”, if you knew anything about football you would know that based on our last 2 performances, were overrated. But I should know better because you’re probably the same fans who said we were going to get “smoked” by Cal before that game. Yes we’re 6-0, but our strength of schedule sucks and were doing the bare minimum to get by of late.

SJSU vs. Nevada

Sorry for the delay but school comes first.

Besides, there's not much to talk about when it comes to this game. SJSU is wishing they didn't have this game to play.

I see this game being an absolute blowout (I hope).

From the offensive side of the ball expect huge numbers. Kaepernick has been struggling to put up numbers as of late as you can see by that awesome graph I made. On the other hand Vai has been picking up the slack. This is not a problem as it shows how talented we are on the offensive side of the ball. Expect Kaepernick, and Vai to break some huge runs this game. Also expect some short passes to Virgil Green and Brandon Wimberly to end up going for big gains as this SJSU defense has had trouble making tackles in the open field.

Defensively expect the defensive line to have a field day. More big numbers from them as this SJSU offensive line will have a hard time giving their quarterback the time he needs. Expect quick screen passes that our defense will be prepared for. At the linebacking core expect more big numbers from Brandon Marshall and James-Michael Johnson. There is a chance that our secondary will give up a big play or two but I'm not seeing that very likely in this game. Instead I see 1-2 interceptions by our secondary.

Final Score Prediction:

SJSU 3 - Nevada 79

First and foremost, congratulations goes out to this Nevada team that has started the season 5-0. At the same time, I’m worried and torn about what to think. Coming into every season the Pack has two goals in mind:

1. Beat unlv
2. Beat Boise St. / Win the WAC (this is usually hand-in-hand)

But this year is different. Coming into this year, if you knew how good this team was, as I had been saying, there was a 3rd goal:

3. Get a BCS game (this is hand-in-hand with beating Boise St. this year, granted we are undefeated going into the game)

This team is more than capable of playing in a BCS game. If you really watched the last 2 games however you would have noticed that we’re not playing up to our full potential. The UNLV game should have never been close. The second half of the BYU game was average. The team needs to go back to playing how they played against Cal. That is Nevada football, and that is what this team needs to not only get that BCS game, but also to beat Boise St.

Remember a few blogs ago when I said we need to “blow out” teams? Well that’s not happening. When it comes down to the BCS computations, we are not going to rank as high as we should because of this. Cal being ranked #24 when we beat them has no relevance anymore as they are 2-2. Furthermore the combined records of the teams we have beaten so far is 8-16. The sad thing is that Division 2 opponent Eastern Washington is contributing 3 of those wins. The Division 1 opponents combined record is only 5-14.

As of now, there are only 4 games remaining against opponents with winning records (>.500), and one of these is Boise St. I can not stress how “perfect” we have to look against these teams. Playing like we have the last 6 quarters will not cut it anymore.

Now you might think I’m being pessimistic towards my team, but I’m not. I have high hopes and high expectations because I know that this is the best team we’ve had in the 8 years I’ve been following this team, and it will the best we have for a while. I am a Nevada fan through and through and have stood by this team through thick and thin. The team needs to stop being content with being ranked and move on to the bigger picture. We need to make this a year that people will talk about for years to come.

Tomorrow: SJSU game preview
Wednesday: Ranking Implications

Calling Out The Fans

First off let me start by thanking all the fans for their support at the Cal game. You guys were loud and the majority of you stayed the length of the game.

Now let me challenge all of you to help make this the best Nevada team in history.

Today it was announced that the Boise St. v Nevada game on November 26th was sold out. That's awesome. But why haven't the rest of the games been sold out? Stop thinking that the Boise St. game is the only game that matters from here on out. One slip and it's all over.

This isn't an NFL game, tickets are very reasonable. Furthermore of the other games aren't on the day after Thanksgiving. Isn't that supposed to be when you spend time with your family? Well if the Pack is your family then be there for the other 3 home games:

October 9 - SJSU - THIS IS HOMECOMING PEOPLE!
October 30 - Utah State - THIS IS THE HALL OF FAME GAME!
November 20 - New Mexico State - THIS IS GOING TO BE A MASSACRE! (Really now? Who wants to miss a massacre?)

I'm begging all of you to go to the games and get all your friends to go to the games. This might be the year where we get a BCS game and all we're going to have is 2 sellouts? It's Mackay, it only holds ~30,000. Just imagine if we had a real stadium that held 85,000-100,000!

P.S. This might be your only time to see Kaepernick play, as much as we would all love to see him go to the league, the chances of him playing there aren't that high, (sorry I'm a realist).