Final drive leaves a glimmer of hope for Rebels

By Ryan Greene (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008 | 12:17 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- While everything in between the Rebels' first and last offensive possessions Saturday seemed to go wrong, those bookends were, in fact, pretty nice.

Rebels coach Mike Sanford was particularly encouraged by the latter.

"Our team and our offense showed some character in coming back and scoring in the end," he said. "I believed if we had another possession in the end, we would have scored again."

The 16-play, 77-yard drive involved the Rebels executing a little bit of everything, and it was capped by rising freshman Phillip Payne catching a fade pass for a touchdown in his second consecutive game to begin his career.

"It's just not giving up," running back Frank Summers said. "This is a game of men, and you can never give up."

The push down the field was UNLV's fourth of the second half. The first three involved a total of 11 plays, and produced just six offensive yards.

In the meantime, Utah scored touchdowns on its first four drives out of the halftime locker room. The fifth involved nine plays as the Utes did nothing more than run out the game clock.

A no-quit attitude was important to show, considering Utah's No. 22 ranking could seem like child's play when UNLV heads to Arizona State for another road tilt Saturday. The No. 15 Sun Devils picked apart Pac-10 foe Stanford, 41-17, Saturday night.

"The three-and-outs put a lot of pressure on the defense," said Rebel receiver Ryan Wolfe. "The thing most important for us is to concentrate on the three, four drives before that (score at the end) where things stalled out."