Nevada neutralizes Vandals
RENO, Nev. – Idaho went to great lengths Saturday to dig a huge early hole and then kept digging deeper.
Return the opening kickoff 4 yards to the 6-yard line. Immediately allow a long punt return. Jump offside with Nevada facing third-and-4 deep in Vandals territory. Drop five passes. Fall asleep on an onside kick and allow the kicker to recover the football.
Then the second half started – and things only got worse for Idaho.
The Vandals couldn’t sustain a drive, couldn’t contain Nevada quarterback Jeff Rowe and pretty much got what they deserved with a 62-14 flogging in front of 11,584 at Mackay Stadium.
“Just a bad day,” said UI head coach Nick Holt. “Total embarrassment.”
Slow starts are nothing new for Idaho – see Washington State, UNLV and Hawaii – but this one hung around for an entire game. UI trailed 28-0 by the time Daniel Smith took a pass in the flat and barely snuck into the right side of the end zone with just 59 seconds left in the second quarter.
“I don’t know what it is, but we came out flat,” linebacker Cole Snyder said. “We’d do a decent job of stopping a run and getting second-and-8 and they’d come up big on second, third and also on some fourth downs. There weren’t a lot of big plays by our defense.”
It was 48-6 early in the fourth quarter when Rowe departed, but the Wolf Pack kept right on scoring, thanks to some help from Idaho. Nick Hawthorne scooped up a fumble by defensive tackle Siua Musika, who occasionally plays fullback in power formations, at Nevada’s 10 and easily went 90 yards for the score.
The final straw came 5 minutes later when quarterback Steven Wichman threw the ball right to reserve cornerback DeAngelo Wilson in the left flat. As Wilson cruised 47 yards for a touchdown, Wichman sought out intended receiver Matt Askew, who had continued running his route downfield, for an animated on-field conversation.
So it goes for the Vandals (1-5, 1-2 WAC), who seem to have settled into a pattern of taking a big step backward just when it looks like things are coming together. It won’t get any easier for Idaho, which figures to be the underdog in every game the rest of the season. After a bye this week, Idaho entertains Fresno State on Oct. 22.
Meanwhile, Nevada (3-2, 2-0) cruised to the biggest win in 23 meetings with the Vandals. The Wolf Pack rolled up 537 yards, tidily divided up with 265 rushing and 272 passing.
Idaho doesn’t have to go back far to recall a defeat more lopsided than Saturday’s, but that 65-7 setback came against a Boise State team that nearly went undefeated last season.
“One of my teachers was saying, ‘You need to come out and put a beating on these kids,’ so I’m glad we could do that,” said Nevada senior linebacker Roosevelt Cooks, a junior college transfer. “We haven’t blown anybody out since I’ve been here.”
The blowout was in full bloom by early in the second quarter. On the opening kickoff, DeAngelo Ramsey was dropped at the 6. Three plays later, Michael Barrow lined a 39-yard punt that Kevin Stanley quickly returned to the Vandals 21. Five plays later, B.J. Mitchell had the first of his four touchdown runs.
After another Idaho punt, Nevada went 51 yards, the last eight on another Mitchell scoring run.
Nevada scored again midway through the second quarter, and then stunned Idaho with an onside kick down the center of the field. With one Vandal and a horde of Wolf Pack in the vicinity, kicker Brett Jaekle came up with the recovery.
Rowe started to pick apart Idaho in the second quarter and didn’t stop until he exited in the fourth quarter. He finished 21 of 30 for 251 yards and three TDs, but many of those passing yards came after he bought time by sidestepping pass-rushers.
Idaho, which blitzed often in the first half, never sacked Rowe, who also rushed for 45 yards.
“When you have as good a game as (the offensive line) did it makes it easy,” Rowe said, “especially for me.”
Wichman often didn’t have time to scan the field behind shaky protection, and Smith and Wendell Octave combined for five first-half drops.
“Just a lack of concentration,” Smith said. “Stuff that the coaches preach over and over again.”