Analysis: UNLV miscues against UCLA show ‘New Era’ needs more time

By Case Keefer (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015 | 1:10 a.m.

The glitzy new aesthetic UNLV football has adopted in coach Tony Sanchez’s first year represents more than Las Vegas.

Pomp such as the sparks that welcomed the Rebels to the field in Saturday’s home opener against UCLA and the shine emanating from their glossy red helmets speaks to the desires of those of us in Las Vegas. The Stardust-style diamonds and sparkles lining the field at Sam Boyd Stadium spell out the instant gratification we crave.

We want to wake up and see flash. More than anything, we want to win without any delay.

But a 37-3 pasting at the hands of the Bruins accentuated a truth that already should have been evident: We’re not going to get any of that with this anointed New Era.

That’s perfectly fine and seemed like the consensus coming into the season, what with a schedule not conducive to success that had sports books assigning UNLV the second-lowest over/under win total in the nation. Something subtly changed, however, when UNLV shot out to a 17-3 lead at Northern Illinois last week and showed signs in a narrow 38-30 loss.

Spreading buzzwords such as “energy” and “passion” suddenly had something concrete behind them. A crowd of 31,262 people — the 12th-biggest in stadium history, though many of the attendees were clad in Bruin blue — showed up to see if maybe Sanchez was capable of creating magic with a quick and glamorized regeneration.

The only spectacle they witnessed against UCLA was a boneyard of mistakes. UNLV threw for a total of 4 yards in more than three quarters after starting quarterback Blake Decker injured his hamstring on a scramble.

Backup Kurt Palandech earned his quadruplet on 4-for-15 passing with an interception and a fumble, but hey, the junior-college transfer never got sacked. So determined was Palandech to never get sacked that he practically placed the ball in UCLA linebacker Kenny Young’s hands late in the second quarter.

Young went 23 yards untouched for a touchdown, putting the Bruins up 17-0.

“We’re in a great situation down 10 points at the end of the half and he’s just trying to do too much,” Sanchez said. “He put too much on himself.”

In Palandech’s defense, he didn’t receive much help. UNLV’s most potent weapon, receiver Devonte Boyd, dropped the two best passes that came his way.

And Palandech had to show off some elusiveness behind the Rebels’ leaky faucet of an offensive line. They weren’t much better up front on the other side.

UCLA tailback Paul Perkins and fullback Nate Iese trucked over several Rebels in the open field like they were speed bumps.

UNLV did show some surprising acuity against the pass. UCLA quarterback Josh “The Chosen One” Rosen looked more like “The Common One” in never attaining the fluidity he showed in a 351-passing yard debut against Virginia last week.

Granted, the Bruins kept their offense as vanilla as their whiteout uniforms after a six-play, 58-yard opening drive in which they aired it out en route to finding the end zone in less than a minute and a half. But holding Rosen to 5.3 yards per attempt was a big victory compared with giving up 13.8 to Northern Illinois’ Drew Hare last week.

Cornerbacks Torry McTyer and Fred Wilson both made athletic pass break-ups, and safety Blake Richmond became the first collegiate player to pick off the highly touted true freshman with a third-quarter takeaway at the 2-yard line.

“The defense played well enough to give us an opportunity to be in that game,” Sanchez said.

An opponent-strength exception applies to any criticism of UNLV’s performance.

UCLA now has the same number of victories, 31, under fourth-year coach Jim Mora Jr. as UNLV does over the past decade. The Bruins have a terrific chance to win the Pac-12 Conference this season.

But there are not many positives to take out of this defeat. It’s probably for the best to forget about the UCLA experience and move forward.

Actually, let’s retain the style and pageantry — as long as we can accept it’s going to take a while for the rest of the product to match its attraction.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.