Pack evens WAC record
As expected, Nevada beat last place Idaho Saturday to improve to .500, but the game left much to be desired on both the offensive and defensive end.Coming into the game, Idaho’s pass defense was ranked 101 out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams, but the Wolf Pack managed 137 yards and no touchdowns through three quarters.
“Offensively speaking, in the first half we were very, very inconsistent,” Nevada coach Chris Ault said.
In his fourth game since stepping in for injured starter Nick Graziano, Colin Kaepernick frequently overthrew open receivers, was sacked twice and nearly had a pass picked off in the end zone.
Kaepernick said he holds himself responsible for Nevada’s stagnant offense during the first half.
“First half was a little bit slow for our offense,” he said. “I’ll take a lot of the blame for that. Different plays and different blitzes got us off track a little bit.”
Kaepernick completed 15 of 26 passes for a 58 percent completion rate, and finished with 203 yards and one touchdown.
“Colin’s technique needs a lot of work,” Ault said. “He really needs fundamental technique work.”
“Some were just misthrown balls, some were just not being comfortable with what the defense was doing at that point,” Kaepernick said of the bad passes. “If I can cut those out, I think it will be a lot cleaner for us.”
Nevada’s running game was fairly consistent with Luke Lippincott rushing for 119 yards for his third straight 100-yard game.
Even Lippincott wasn’t perfect, though. He had a fumble in the first quarter that was recovered by Nevada’s Adam Bishop.
“You look at mistakes like that; you look at Luke’s fumble. Those are mistakes that give them an opportunity,” Ault said.
A bright spot for Nevada was the defensive unit’s play, although it had its share of mistakes too.
After giving up 839 yards in its previous two games, the defense held Idaho to 212 yards of total offense and just 56 yards rushing.
Idaho’s star running back, speedy Deonte Jackson, was held to 45 yards, well below his average of 116.1 yards per game.
“Defensively I thought we played well,” Ault said. “We’re starting to get better. I thought we played with some nice energy.”
However, the defense committed five penalties resulting in first downs for Idaho, three of which happened on the Vandals’ final drive to set up them up with an easy touchdown.
On that possession, Nevada’s defensive unit was hit with two pass interference calls and a roughing the passer penalty.
Nevada had four pass interference penalties in the game.
“The defense needed to step up and play some consistent football, and they did, and I’m real pleased with that,” Ault said. “And yet, you take those PIs and stuff and you cannot do that. Those guys are costing us.”
Lippincott said he thought despite the mistakes, the game represents an improvement.
“I feel like the last four games the offense has really grown a lot,” he said. “We’ve dominated the run. Today our defense stepped up and our kickoff team played great.”
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