Ault’s onside kick call more than pathetic, it cost Pack the game
Nevada executed its game plan.
The Wolf Pack beat Texas Tech on total yards (488 to 421), controlled the game clock (35:54 to 23:13) and showcased a defensive backfield that exceeded all expectations.
So what went wrong?
Nevada was horrible in the red zone, only converting on three field goals in five trips inside Tech’s 20-yard line. That will kill any team that is trying to beat the No. 12-ranked school in the nation, but even with Nevada’s ineptitude in the red zone and a Colin Kaepernick “fumble” at the one-yard line, the Wolf Pack still had a chance, until one crucial call.
With 6:40 left in the third quarter and Nevada trailing 14-12 coach Chris Ault elected to onside kick with senior Brett Jaekle. The onside kick, which only went eight-and-a-half yards, handed Texas Tech a short field and a perfect opportunity to take back the momentum—which it did. The Red Raiders marched 39 yards and scored on a 13-yard pass play to wide receiver Eric Morris.
Texas Tech’s passing offense, which averaged 475 yards per game last year, had 115 yards before the onside kick. Nevada may not have been racking up the sacks, but the defense was hitting quarterback Graham Harrell and the secondary was playing solid coverage.
Why wouldn’t you kick the ball deep and give your defense a chance? The Wolf Pack allowed only one touchdown up to that point. With the exception of an 82-yard punt return, Nevada was winning the game.
Ault said he went for the onside kick because Texas Tech’s special teams play 15 yards back of the opposing team on kickoffs. If Tech is exploitable on kickoffs then exploit it in the first half, but not down by two points in the middle of the third quarter. Not with the momentum and 25,000 Nevada fans, who actually stayed past halftime. Not in one of the most important games in the program’s history.
Ault also said Nevada had practiced the kick all week in anticipation of catching Tech off guard. Are you serious? The Bay of Pigs was executed better than Jaekle’s kick. Nevada’s senior kicked the ball so soft and slow even he was able to outrun the ball, which didn’t even meet the minimum 10 yards a kickoff must travel before the kicking team can recover the ball.
I think Ault said it best when he described the kick as pathetic. But then again, Ault can’t blame Jaekle, because the only thing more pathetic than the kick was Ault’s play call.
Running game will survive
Nevada running back Luke Lippincott’s season-ending injury won’t hurt the Wolf Pack as much as some people think.
Lippincott led the Western Athletic Conference last season with 1,420 yards rushing, but he is one of many great backs in Ault’s rush first Pistol offense. Nevada has finished top-25 in the nation in rushing yards three years in a row. Lippincott only became the feature back for the Wolf Pack last season.
Nevada will always have a consistent rush game in the Pistol system and things won’t change too much with Vai Taua and Brandon Fragger. One of Nevada’s strengths coming into the 2008 season was its depth in the offensive backfield.
Also, maybe the loss of Lippincott will force Kaepernick to actually look downfield more often. Marko Mitchell was consistently open deep Saturday, but the Wolf Pack only converted on one deep pass to Nevada’s talented receiver who needs to get the damn ball more often.
Emerson Marcus is the sports editor of The Nevada Sagebrush. He can be reached at emarcus@nevadasagebrush.com
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 1:17 am and is filed under Football, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
September 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am
First of all didn’t coach Ault tell you not to call it the Red Zone? and yet you do in your article anyways? I say somebody write a letter to Garrett and bring him back to the Sagebrush because I am not at all impressed with what you have done so far. it seems every week your goal is to criticize the Pack football team while not looking at anything from a positive aspect. You obviously were not paying attention to Coach Ault when he described his reasoning for the onside kick. because most teams lineup 10 feet behind the ball and Tech lines up15 feet away, they had been practicing all week on that play for that very situation. So don’t condemn the program, or coach Ault for last weeks loss. It was a well fought game and in the end the offense had some problems in the “Goal Zone.” Above all, Coach Ault did a good job this week and the team should feel very confident about going into Mizzou this weekend.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
This is a terrible write-up. Executing kicks is a relatively unpredictable thing, and while the play was certaintly a gamble, it was nowhere near the follie that you seem to describe it is. Jaekle’s two missed fiel goals (6 points) and the punt returned for a touchdown (7 points) would have made much more of a difference, same if Kaepernick would have hung on to the damn football getting into the endzone (7 points). That 20 point difference would have made exactly that in the game.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Red Zone, Goal Zone, what difference does it make, really? If you’re 20 yards from the end zone, what difference does it make what you call it? Not much of a complaint. Another thing, if everything were positive, we’d have nothing to talk or write about, everything would be, “Gee, that was great, and so was that, and that too!” It’s boring!
I do believe Coach Ault did what he thought was best for the team, but that doesn’t mean he’s above scrutiny. For example, take the 2nd and goal on the Texas tech 4 yard line; the play was a play-action roll out!?! Are you kidding me!? Just run the ball down their throats! Our power running game is great, and we’d of had two chances to get 4 yards. Taua is a great down hill runner, and we had Lippincott at that point as well. We’d have gotten it done. Anyway, Jaekle ended up missing the field goal try after Kaepernick was sacked for a loss of 11, and the 3rd down play went for an incompletion.
The team, offense and defense, could have played better and certainly executed much better. But the onside kick was unnecessary. Just let your Defense do their jobs. Our coverage was playing well considering we were up against a nationally ranked spread offense. That call gave Texas tech great field position, which was something our defense couldn’t afford to give them at any point during the game.
Well done Emerson!
September 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Emerson,
Since I’ve been here people have constantly criticized Coach Ault for being to conservative with his play calling. Had the onside kick gone Nevada’s way then you would be praising Ault for a gutsy play call in a big game. To say the onside kick cost the Pack the game is erroneous. The real reason we lost the game was because of our production inside the goal zone. I’m happy to see that Ault is willing to take these chances. This is only going to help us when we play Fresno St. and Boise St.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Sagebrush Critic, you are absolutely correct. We shouldn’t criticize Chris Ault. He is above scrutiny and is an expert at football. That’s why he wins every game he coaches, right?
Criticism is necessary in order to hold people accountable. I agree entirely with Emerson in that the play call was pathetic. The play calling in this game was worse than the officiating. Also, a true Nevada fan wouldn’t blame Kaepernick for what was clearly a referee botching a call in the endzone.
With that said, I think Chris Ault is a great coach. He is in the Hall of Fame for a reason and his pistol offense is now being used by many very good programs. However, that doesn’t excuse him from criticism when he makes dumb calls. Just because a onside kick early in the game worked against Utah State last year doesn’t mean it will work against the #12 Red Raiders. What Ault did by calling that was remove our defense (which was far outplaying our offense) and he removed them from the game. The momentum built from the interception which led to field goal which brought us within 2 points was destroyed by one bad call. Even if Jaekle had performed the kick flawlessly, who’s the say it would have worked. That kind of risky call should be saved only for when you are down and out of time (which is way making that play call was dumb WL). Poor Officiating (which Emerson didn’t mention, which is probably because our team has no control over that.) Poor play plus bad officiating resulted in a loss that shouldn’t of happened. With all the chances given the Wolf Pack on Saturday to take control and win, it is shameful that we lost. The Wolf Pack has an amazing defense (far better than expected) and one of the highest scoring offenses (see Nevada @ Boise last year) in the nation. I say great job Emerson and continue to hold the Pack to higher standard, because here at Nevada, we shouldn’t be complacent with losing. Go Pack!
P.S. - What is this Goal Line nonsense? It is called a “Red Zone”. Let’s not sound like idiots to the rest of the country when discussing football just because we don’t want to say the color r-e-d.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Everyone who writes a comment crying about Emerson being negative is the reason Nevada will never be a powerful D-I program. It be nice if we could all be sports hippies and sit around hold hands and sing, but guess what Nevada fans it isnt going to happen. In sports criticism is part of the landscape, and by saying “dont pick on the coach it’s okay we played really really well” thats just showing the commitiment to mediocrity that exists within our football program. If this was the UNLV game everyone one of you kids would be up in arms. The truth is you dont hand a struggling offense a short field. You just dont. It helped them get back on track, their fans woke back up and slowly the boys in blue died on the field. Teams like Notre Dame, Florida, USC win by 40 and the coaches get criticized, its part of the game, even in Reno. Maybe thats why Ault can get away with whatever he wants, because nobody wants to ever second guess him, I am glad this new sports editor isnt scared to push back a little.
p.s. whoever said to bring back Hylton, I suggest you go read his articles on the archives, that guy was about as anti-nevada as you can get.