UNLV, San Jose State in similar situations heading into Saturday’s game

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 | 2 a.m.

They’re coming into Saturday’s game on a three-game losing streak despite some stats favoring them in the last game, and a sparse home crowd likely isn’t going to be much help. That’s San Jose State, not UNLV, but both teams are experiencing roughly the same amount of frustration and optimism at this point in the season.

The Rebels (1-4, 0-1) kick off against San Jose State (1-3, 0-1) at Spartan Stadium at 5:02 p.m. Saturday. The game will air on ESPNews.

At the same time UNLV was getting run over at San Diego State, the Spartans were leading UNR 10-7 in the fourth quarter. San Jose State threw for 212 more yards than the Wolf Pack and held them to 0-for-9 on third downs, but minus-3 in turnovers did in the Spartans, who lost 21-10.

The Rebels didn’t have nearly the same statistical dominance against the Aztecs, but they were comparable in a lot of categories, except the most important one.

“The naked and unfortunate truth is they keep score and there’s where you’ve got to win,” UNLV coach Bobby Hauck said Monday at UNLV’s weekly presser in the Lied Athletic Complex.

As bad as things have been for the Rebels this year, this week presents a great opportunity to salvage the season. A victory would give UNLV momentum heading into homecoming next Friday against Fresno State, which has been the biggest disappointment of any team in the Mountain West.

While they won’t be favored in either game, the Rebels appear to be on about the same level as both the Spartans and Bulldogs. Getting to 3-4 at the bye week would be a huge turnaround, but it has to start with putting the mistakes plaguing them so far this year behind them.

“September’s been hard on us,” Hauck said. “This is a big game for us.”

What’s No. 1 on that list of mistakes? The same thing that essentially cost San Jose State the game against UNR: turnovers.

In five games, UNLV already has eclipsed its total number of interceptions from last season (10), and it’s getting bleak in the red zone with the Rebels scoring a touchdown less than half the time (44 percent) and getting any kind of points only 69 percent of the time.

That doesn’t even include a drive like the one in the third quarter against SDSU that ended with quarterback Blake Decker’s second interception when George Nahfahu tipped a pass up into a defender’s arms. That play started at the 22-yard line, so it doesn’t go down in the red zone stats, but it should still be submitted as evidence.

“That’s something we have to get better it,” H-back Taylor Barnhill said about the Rebels’ red-zone performance.

On the opposite side, the Rebels are giving up red-zone scores at a rate of 96 percent, and two-thirds of the time it’s a touchdown. With that kind of performance on defense, the Rebels can’t afford to keep blowing their chances close to the end zone. It’s obviously something they’ve been working on in practice, but only game-day execution really matters.

“There’s no surefire way to make sure that gets done or we’d be doing it,” Hauck said.

One of these teams is going to get a victory that will feel like it’s pivoting their season back toward the middle. Odds favor the one that holds on to the ball.

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