Tough 10-7 loss at BYU not reason to smile for UNLV

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Sept. 25, 2000 | 8:35 a.m.

Sept. 23, 2000

PROVO, Utah --- Once upon a time, a 10-7 loss at BYU would be cause for a minor celebration for UNLV football fans.

Not anymore.

"We came here to win the game and we lost it," UNLV head coach John Robinson said following Saturday afternoon's Mountain West Conference defeat before an announced crowd of 60,191 at chilly Cougar Stadium. "I thought it was going to be an even game. I believe we could have won the game if we did what we're capable of doing on offense."

That was a mighty big if on Saturday.

BYU's blitzing defensive front seven, led by tackles Chris Hoke and Hans Olsen and middle linebacker Justin Ena, shut down the Rebels' running game and had sophomore quarterback Jason Thomas scrambling for his life much of the game.

Still, thanks to a strong showing by UNLV's defense --- the Rebels had never allowed fewer than 27 points to a Cougar club in seven previous meetings before Saturday --- UNLV actually had a chance to pull it out in the fourth quarter.

Trailing 10-7 thanks to a one-yard touchdown run by Thomas early in the fourth quarter, the Rebels moved all the way down to the BYU 25.

Thomas connected on back-to-back passes of 26 yards to Nate Turner and 40 yards to tight end DeJhown Mandley to start the drive. But then UNLV's offensive line, overpowered most of the game in the middle, fell apart again.

Tailback Jeremi Rudolph, who would finish with minus-11 yards rushing on 10 carries for the game, lost six yards on a first down carry as he was swarmed by BYU defenders while taking the handoff.

Then, on 2nd-and-16, Thomas was sacked for a five-yard loss by Hoke. Thomas was sacked again, this time a 13-yarder by Cougar junior defensive Ryan Denney, despite evading several BYU blitzers on third down.

Faced with a fourth-and-34 at the BYU 49 with a little less than six minutes to go, Robinson had no choice but to punt the ball back to the Cougars and hope his bend-but-don't break defense could come through one more time.

It didn't.

The Cougars (2-3, 1-1 Mountain West), behind the running of sophomore tailback Luke Staley (28 carries, 167 yards), picked up four first downs en route to running out the clock and held on for the hard-earned victory.

"Our defense came up huge," BYU head coach LaVell Edwards said. "We had three straight plays with tackles for loss when they were in field goal range."

But UNLV placekicker Ray Cheetany never got a chance in the fourth quarter. He did attempt a 29-yarder in the second quarter, but it was blocked by BYU's Paul Walkenhorst who came crashing through the left side of the Rebel offensive line.

"Their defense overwhelmed our offense," Robinson said. "They blitzed us right off the bat and did it with success and just kept coming. We couldn't block them.

"When Jason had time (to throw), he did some things I liked."

Unfortunately for the Rebels (1-2, 0-1), that wasn't very often.

Thomas finished with 253 yards in total offense, rushing for 51 yards on 15 carries and passing for another 202 yards, completing 11-of-17 passes with one interception in the process. But thanks to the lack of a ground game --- UNLV finished with just 41 yards rushing --- the Rebels finished with only 243 yards in total offense.

"I think we turned it on a little too late (offensively)," Thomas said. "Our defense played a helluva game. ... a championship type game. We just didn't turn it on until it was too late.

"Our O-line did okay." Thomas continued "I'm not going to say they were the reason we lost the game. On the plays that I had time, I sat back there and threw the ball and they played well. But we just have to play more consistent. We have to play every down hard. We can't play two downs hard, two downs soft. You can't do that."

It wasn't exactly a banner day offfensively for BYU, either. The Cougars finished with just 353 yards in total offense and Cougar quarterbacks Bret Engemann and Charlie Peterson were sacked five times, including twice by Rebel defensive end Anton Palepoi.

But thanks to a 25-yard touchdown run by backup tailback Brian McDonald and a 42-yard field goal by Owen Pochman, the Cougars took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter and made it stand up.

Still, it was little consolation to Thomas and company that they at least threw a scare in the Cougars near the end.

"We're not celebrating," Thomas said. "We want to win.We didn't come here to play close. We played to get respect and we played to get a victory. We accomplished only one of the two.We want to win. We want to turn this program around."