Mistake-prone Rebels beat themselves up over loss to UNR

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 | 8:54 a.m.

RENO --- Blue was the color of the night Saturday at Mackay Stadium.

There was mostly blue shirts in the crowd of 23,457. And there was a fair share of blue language, especially in the student sections. And a Fremont Cannon that, thanks to UNLV's 22-14 loss to in-state rival UNR, will be painted blue for the first time in six years.

All of which had Mike Sanford's Rebels (1-2) feeling very blue afterward.

"All I've got to say is this is the worst loss I've ever been apart of while playing the game of football," senior tight end Greg Estandia said. "This loss, as long as I live, I'm never going to be able to make up for it."

"It's definitely the worst loss I've ever had," senior safety Joe Miklos said.

Other players, like junior quarterback Shane Steichen, simply refused to talk about it with the media afterward.

Yes, it hurt that bad.

"It feels like we let the seniors down," junior wide receiver Tremayne Kirkland said. "The only way to make it up to them is to win the (Mountain West) conference."

Adding to the frustration was the way the Rebels played.

"That was a bad performance," Sanford said. "We didn't do what what we are supposed to do. We didn't throw and catch."

How bad was it? Consider:

After a 5-yard procedure penalty pushed the ball back to the 11, the Rebels had back-to-back touchdowns wiped out by penalties. The first, an 11-yard scoring run by Steichen, was negated by a clipping penalty on other side of the field. The next, a 17-yard pass from Steichen to Estandia, came back for an illegal shift.

There's more. Steichen the hit Kirkland over the middle at the 1 on the next play. That play, too, was taken away because of a holding penalty.

On the next play, Steichen was sacked for a 15-yard loss. The Rebels, who had had a first-and-goal at the Wolf Pack 6 and could have taken a 14-9 lead if not for the sudden rash of penalties, were forced to punt from the UNR 42.

"That was huge," Sanford said. "One of our deals is that we have to be able to score in the red zone.

"I'm not going to get into the officiating thing. We just didn't get it done in that area. To start, if I remember right, first-and-goal inside the 10, and then we ended up having to punt. That's a total failure on our part. That's something we're definitely going to have to improve on."

"That was nerve-wracking," Wheaton said. "To score (two) touchdowns, and they called them all back was tough."

"Man, I should have done a better job of staying inbounds," a dejected Kirkland said. "We probably could have scored on that drive. I feel like I let the offense down."

The lost fumble, not to mention a strong Wolf Pack pass rush, seemed to unnerve Steichen, who midway through the fourth quarter had thrown for a grand total of 11 yards and seemed on course to break the school record for fewest passing yards (21) in a game.

Steichen went on to finish a dismal 7 of 25 for 58 yards, one interception and a 16-yard touchdown to Estandia with 1:09 left in the game to cut the Wolf Pack lead to 22-14.

But there was no miracle finish. Sergio Aguayo's onside kick took a high, crazy hop but was recovered by UNR's Caleb Spencer. Spencer was also the receiving star of the game with 12 catches for 144 yards.

"We had guys open all night," Sanford said. "We had so many plays out there that we left out on the field, that we either got called back, or we didn't execute, or we didn't throw and catch. We didn't make good decisions. Whatever."

So where do the Rebels go from here? How about Logan, Utah, for their final non-conference game against Utah State (0-1).

"As hard as it is to say, we can't dwell on this loss," Miklos said. "We've just got to look forward to next weekend and Utah State and keep pushing throughout the season."

"Utah State beat us last year, so that should be motivation enough," Kirkland said. "Plus you never like losing, no matter who you're playing."

Especially the team up north.