Nevada vs. unlv Recap

Ok, so the cannon will stay blue, is that any surprise?

The only surprise that should come from this game is how poor we played. Yes we won, no we didn’t do it how we were supposed to. That’s not to say there weren’t any good things but the bad outweighed the good:

Need to improve on

1. I don’t know where these stupid turnovers are coming from, but they will kill us. Courtney Randall, hold on to the damn ball!

2. I know it’s a rivalry so there’s going to be penalties (in the stands too) but it needs to stop. 1 or 2 is ok, but 5+ in a game in unacceptable.

3. The secondary is starting to give up big plays again, this needs to stop immediately.

4. Our special teams looks horrible. We’re giving up huge return yardage; we got lucky that unlv did not return one on us. Drake, just when I was starting to be lenient on you, you go and kick another kickoff out of bounds? You have less responsibility than you had last year, stop f***ing up!

What I’m liking and you should too

1. Red zone defense. Our defense has a LOT of work to do to get to where we need to be, but our defense when backed up into the 20, is impressive.

2. Linebacker play. Brandon Marshall has stepped him game up! James-Michael Johnson has kept him game up! This is a good linebacking core and they are playing impressively.

3. Offensive production. This offense can NOT be stopped. I know it’s unlv but our average yards per play was 7.5. That’s retarded…in a good way. And aside from incompletions and the 1 interception, I don’t think there were more than 3 plays that we did not gain positive yardage.

The bottom line is we played horrible. We struggled to pull away from one of the worst teams in college football. This game should have been over after the 1st quarter, we let them hang around way to much. Nevada is ranked #21 in the AP Top 25 this week. We don’t deserve it. Rankings are supposed to tell you where you stand in a certain group. Being ranked #21 means that we should be able to beat everyone else from #22-120 right? Well I’m sorry but that’s not going to happen. USC, Texas, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Florida State, West Virginia, UCLA…yea, not going to happen. We have the talent and the personnel to beat them but we’re not playing like we should. Our last 6 quarters of play has not been Nevada football, that needs to change next week against SJSU and it needs to continue till after the bowl season otherwise this season can end up as a huge disappointment.

Breaking Down Nevada's Special Teams

Special Teams

If you followed the Pack last year, you know how horrible Ricky Drake was. The kid went 6 of 9 on FG’s and 60 of 64 on extra points! Ricky, you’re a kicker, you spend your practice running a little and kicking the rest of the time. There is no reason you should ever miss an extra point. Now I know we score a lot so you have to kick a lot, so I’ll let you miss one, but missing 4? Ok maybe I’m going a little too hard on you, in reality I’m having a hard time recruiting a kicker in my NCAA Football 2011 game, so maybe it is hard to recruit a good kicker for Nevada. You were so bad that Ault, Mr. Conservative, started going for it on 4th down because he had no faith in you.

Ok enough of the bashing on Ricky; you’re decent on kickoffs this year. But somehow we got a present this year. #40 Anthony Martinez has been doing work. So far he’s 4 for 4 on field goals, and a perfect 20 of 20 on XP’s. And to think he’s only a freshmen. Keep it up I can see us needing a 39 yard field goal at the end of regulation come November 26th.

The rest of the special teams, kick off coverage, punt team, and kick return look solid. I like the confidence Mike Ball is showing to bring the ball out of the endzone. I’m projecting 1 kick off returned for a touchdown this season, which is more than we’ve had in a long time.

Later today, defensive break down

Tomorrow, what you all have been waiting for.