Rebels flub another chance at victory, fall to New Mexico at home

By Taylor Bern

Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 | 8:20 p.m.

On the foot of a walk-on listed without a number on its own roster, UNLV nearly sent a comeback-turned-blown lead into overtime with the longest field goal in program history.

Nearly it remains forever because Brian McIntyre’s 55-yard attempt fell feet — maybe just a foot? — short of the crossbar in the north end zone at Sam Boyd Stadium. From 17 down, the Rebels scored 21 straight only to watch it all fall apart and come up short once more in a 31-28 loss before an announced crowd of 13,419.

“Almost is not good enough,” said senior safety Mike Horsey, “and our record is proof of that.”

At 2-7, the Rebels are now guaranteed to finish under .500 for the 23rd time in the past 28 seasons. UNLV falls to 1-4 in Mountain West play during what many consider the league’s worst overall season, leaving little more than pride and the Fremont Cannon as motivation the rest of the way.

The Rebels shook off a slow start and got rolling with the final drive of the first half. Blake Decker’s passes, wobbly and off-target up to that point, started finding the right spots and running back Shaquille Murray-Lawrence got rolling in the second half, on his way to a career-high 125 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.

And then, what? After coach Bobby Hauck talked Monday about the myriad ways UNLV was losing, about how you couldn’t just point to one thing, the one thing most people would have pointed to showed up again.

Driving in his own territory with a 21-17 lead early in the fourth quarter, Decker threw an interception, his second of the day and 14th of the season. Though not entirely his fault — the pass, a little off, hit Devonte Boyd in the hands — the pick goes on Decker’s record, and Isaiah Brown’s return inside the 5-yard line changed everything.

“UNLV had completely seized momentum up until that point,” said New Mexico coach Bob Davie. “The biggest play of the game was that interception.”

UNLV answered and took a 28-24 lead, but the shift woke up New Mexico’s stagnant running game. The Lobos mostly didn’t even bother threatening with a pass. Lamar Jordan, the remaining piece of a two-headed quarterback attack that shrunk when Cole Gautsche left with an injury, completed 2-of-7 passes for five yards.

On the final drive, a 15-play clock drainer that contained two third-down conversions plus one on fourth-and-2, New Mexico enforced its will. The Rebels knew what was coming and couldn’t stop it.

Decker took over with 1:11 remaining and navigated the Rebels to New Mexico’s 38-yard line, where chaos ensued.

The Rebels had no timeouts, so when the clock showed zeroes after Boyd was tackled out of bounds, the Lobos started walking on the field like the game was over. But there was clearly one second left when the play was whistled dead. The refs conferred and determined there should be one second on the clock and that it would start running as soon as it was marked ready.

What’s a weird thing for New Mexico to do with that information? Call a timeout. What did New Mexico do with that information? You guessed it.

“I wanted to make sure that number one they were going to kick the field goal,” said Davie, adding he was positive UNLV would be prepared to snap at the ready. “Number two, I didn’t want to rough the kicker. … Really it was just a chance for us to talk.”

Davie called another timeout to freeze McIntyre, a junior who went to Arbor View High. UNLV’s regular long-distance kicker, Nicolai Bornand, was watching from the sideline on crutches and Jonathan Leiva doesn’t have enough leg for that distance. So saving the game fell to McIntyre, one of several walk-ons forced into action today.

Based purely on aesthetics the kick had no chance. Instead of flying end over end, the ball spun around like helicopter blades. Yet it powered closer and closer to the posts.

For a second, the kid with no number on the roster looked like the hero no one saw coming. Then it was all over.

“He darn near made it,” Hauck said. “That would have been a great story.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.