Rebels consistent in their losing ways

Steve Carp

Monday, Oct. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

PROVO, Utah -- Jeff Horton talks about developing some consistency with his UNLV football program. But that's the problem. The Rebels are consistent.

They consistently turn the ball over at critical times. They consistently fail to tackle. They consistently fail to sustain an effort. In essence, they are consistently inconsistent.

Which is why you don't have to dig too deep to explain the team's record-setting ninth straight defeat -- a 63-28 whipping Saturday at the hands of Brigham Young. The foundation of that streak, which began last November, was clearly evident in the self-destructing effort at Cougar Stadium.

If it wasn't Omar Love fumbling inside the BYU 10 to kill a first-quarter scoring drive, it was the Rebel secondary grabbing at air as yet another Cougar receiver ran free for big yardage.

If it wasn't quarterback Jon Denton being under constant duress thanks to a lack of protection from his offensive line, it was BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian picking out open receivers while deciding if he would have a single or a double latte after the game.

"We did some good things," Horton said. "But our problem is staying consistent for four quarters. Hopefully, it's our youth that's causing it. But until we can put it all together, we're going to struggle."

When UNLV did put things together, the Rebels competed very well with the 19th-ranked Cougars. The opening drive, which Denton masterfully engineered, had a good mixture of run and pass, good execution and some improvisation from the redshirt freshman from Green Valley.

That opening 80-yard march culminated with Denton going 23 yards on a quarterback draw as UNLV scored its initial first-quarter touchdown of the season.

The other scoring drives were solid efforts as well. In fact, each of the four UNLV touchdowns began at the Rebels' 20.

Even the much-maligned defense showed signs of being competitive.

UNLV forced BYU to punt on its first series and had Love not put the ball on the ground at the BYU 8 after Denton had guided the team into scoring position again, UNLV might have led 14-0.

The fact it was 7-0 UNLV late in the first quarter had the 64,872 fans at Cougar Stadium aggravated enough to boo.

But the boos quickly turned to cheers as the Cougars got it together after an emotionally flat start, rolling to their sixth win of the season.

"It's definitely consistency," said linebacker Greg Gales. "We play great for one or two series, but then we have a breakdown and it kills us.

"It comes back to big plays. We get them in third-and-long and they make a play and get a first down. That's the most frustrating thing about it."

An inability to tackle caused a lot of those big plays. Several times, Sarkisian seemed willing to settle for a six- or seven-yard gain. But then a receiver would break a tackle or two and a harmless-looking play become a 60-yard backbreaker.

"All we can do is keep stressing the fundamentals in practice and keep working at it," said Horton. "But some of those guys BYU had out there were pretty big. We had a hard time matching up with them physically on a few of those plays."

Sarkisian said credit should go to the BYU backs and receivers.

"The UNLV linebackers got deep in their drops, so that opened a lot of things up," he said.

Despite being overmatched, the Rebels managed to hang in for a while. It was 28-14 at halftime.

"I thought it was important for us to recapture the intensity we had against Wyoming and Colorado State," Denton said. "And we started out strong. But we have to keep it going. We can't turn the ball over when we have a chance to score and then they come down and score. That's a killer."

And Love, who killed the Rebels with two key fumbles, is as frustrated as anyone.

"What has me upset is that they scored off the fumbles," said Love, who despite the two gaffes, rushed for a team-best 102 yards.

"Last week (against Nevada-Reno), it was Murphy's Law. This week, it was like I still had Murphy's Law. Actually, I've been sick this week with bronchitis. I just felt kinda weak today."