San Jose 27, Nevada 24; Pack still not bowl eligible
View a Photo gallery from the game here.
SAN JOSE - Nevada led San Jose State 24-10 at the end of the second quarter Saturday night and looked poised to become bowl eligible, but it was shut out in the second half in losing 27-24 in San Jose.
Brett Jaekle had a chance to tie the game with 26 seconds left, but his 37-yard field goal bounced off the left goal post.
“The second half our offense just didn’t make plays like we needed to,” Colin Kaepernick said. “When it came down to it we had the ball in our hands for the second week in a row and we couldn’t finish.”
Kaepernick finished with 252 yards passing, 72 yards rushing, and two touchdowns.
Luke Lippincott, the leading rusher in the Western Athletic Conference, ran for just 74 yards.
The Wolf Pack (5-6, 3-4 WAC) outgained the Spartans (5-7, 4-4) 310-189 in the first half, but gained just 116 yards in the second half.
“We just got out of sync,” Kaepernick said.
San Jose State opened up the scoring with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Adam Tafralis to Kevin Jurovich, but Nevada quickly responded, scoring touchdowns on its next two possessions to go up 14-7 midway into the second quarter.
Nevada tried to catch the Spartans off-guard with an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but the kick didn’t go the required ten yards and San Jose State got the ball on Nevada’s 39-yard line.
The Wolf Pack held the Spartans to a field goal and proceeded to score ten straight points to end the half.Kaepernick hooked up with a wide-open Marko Mitchell for a 59-yard touchdown and Jaekle hit a 36-yard field goal with 25 seconds left in the half to give Nevada a 24-10 lead. But in the second half the combination of Spartan quarterback Adam Tafralis’s accurate throwing and a number of ill-timed penalties did Nevada in.
David Richmond made two huge catches on separate possessions for 36 and 41 yards to set up both of San Jose State’s second half touchdowns.“Our defense has been suspect and couldn’t stop their big plays,” Nevada coach Chris Ault said.
Tafralis finished with 342 yards passing and two touchdowns and Richmond finished with nine receptions for 143 yards.
Two penalties by cornerback Paul Pratt, a facemask and a pass interference call, helped keep San Jose State’s scoring drives alive.
“We just killed ourselves,” Pratt said.
The Spartans took a 27-24 lead on a 13-yard touchdown run by Jacob French, but gave Nevada the ball back with 1:20 remaining in the game. Alex Rosenblum returned the punt 56 yards to San Jose State’s 36-yard line to give Nevada a chance at overtime, but Jaekle’s field goal attempt failed.
The Wolf Pack needs to win its season finale against Louisiana Tech next week to become bowl eligible.
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on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Football, Sports.
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