Special teams lag in victory
While it didn’t give up any touchdown returns, Nevada’s special teams unit continued to disappoint Saturday.
Brett Jaekle missed a 26-yard field goal and an extra point at the end of the game.
“There’s no excuse for that kind of stuff,” coach Chris Ault said. “There’s no excuse for him missing the PAT or the chip shot field goal. You count on those guys to be automatic for you.”
Dwayne Sanders, who has been one of the few consistent players on special teams, added to the woes at the start of the third quarter when he fumbled the opening kickoff return.
The ball was recovered by Idaho and resulted in a touchdown six plays later that cut Nevada’s lead to 17-14.
“You know its amazing because he’s (Sanders) been pretty doggone good and then you see that stuff happen and then your defense has got to go back onto the field,” Ault said. “You can’t do that and you can’t do it with any kind of consistency.”
However, Nevada’s punt return and kickoff coverage did show improvement after giving up a punt return for a touchdown against Utah State last week.
Idaho averaged zero yards per punt return and just 19.4 yards per kick return.
“Our kickoff team was outstanding and our punt cover team had nice coverage,” Ault said. “Those were two areas of grave concern for us.”
Rosenblum
Nevada punt returner Alex Rosenblum, who Ault has been critical of all season, put together a good game, gaining 56 yards on three punt returns.
Rosenblum ran two of those into Idaho territory, setting up a touchdown and a field goal for Nevada in the first quarter.
Rosenblum gained just two yards on three punt returns against Utah State last week for an average of 0.7 yards per return, and against Boise State his only return was for minus-one yard.
“Coach was giving me the silent treatment so I knew I had to do something good today,” Rosenblum said.
Ault was pleased.
“He did a nice job today,” Ault said. “We aren’t out of the woods yet, but that was a huge improvement.”
Mauga Injury
Star linebacker and leading tackler Joshua Mauga went down with a season-ending knee injury last week and one of the big questions coming into Saturday’s game was how Nevada’s defense would respond.
It seems not to have missed a beat.
Junior Jerome Johnson filled in at linebacker and had five tackles, one for a loss of four yards.
“It’s tough, but Jerome Johnson played well today,” senior Matt Hines said of Mauga’s absence. “If someone goes down, someone else has got to step up.”
He said despite the defense’s success, the loss of Mauga has left a big hole.
“It’s a challenge, he was a leader out there,” Hines said.
Fickle Fans
Saturday’s attendance of 11,960 was the lowest turnout of the season.
No fans could be seen in the highest bleachers and the student section was only half-full for much of the second half.
It is the lowest attendance since last November, when Nevada beat Utah State 42-0 in front of 8,584 fans.
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