Nevada football (1-6, 0-3) lost 24-22 in a tight, back-and-forth match against New Mexico (4-3, 1-2) on Saturday, Oct. 18 in what was their second evening game of the season. With this loss, Nevada extends their conference losing streak to 14 games.
The game began with the Pack winning the coin toss and electing to kick off. New Mexico’s opening drive started with a 3-yard rush up the middle. Nevada halted the Lobos’ second down attempt, but jumped offsides on third down. New Mexico was able to net two more first downs before the Pack forced a fourth down. The Lobos decided to go for the first down and Nevada jumped offsides for the second time. New Mexico running back DJ McKinney then rushed for a touchdown to put the Lobos up 7-0.
The Wolf Pack began their drive with a 2-yard rush by running back Caleb Ramseur. After two more unsuccessful plays, Nevada was forced to punt. However, the New Mexico returner muffed the punt and the ball was recovered by the Pack. Nevada capitalized on their revived drive by scoring their first points of the contest through a field goal by kicker Joe McFadden to make the score 7-3.
Both teams’ next drives ended rather quickly until New Mexico received a Nevada punt at their own 9-yard line. Three plays later, the Lobos’ quarterback Jack Layne tossed a 28-yard completion to receiver Dorian Thomas. From there, New Mexico drove down to the 1-yard line, where their long drive was capped by a rushing touchdown from running back Scottre Humphrey to make the score 14-3.
Nevada’s next drive began as quarterback Carter Jones threaded the needle for an 18-yard completion to receiver Marshaun Brown. Ramseur then added 7 more yards to the Wolf Pack drive on a rush up the middle. After consecutive completions to receiver Dakota Thomas, the Nevada drive stalled on the Lobos’ own 19-yard line. McFadden netted his 36-yard attempt to cut the deficit to 14-6.
After two penalties pushed New Mexico’s ensuing drive back to their own 23-yard line, linebacker EJ Smith forced a fumble while tackling running back Damon Bankston. Nevada’s Bishop Turner recovered the fumble to set his offense up on the Lobos’ 22-yard line. This was the only game all season in which Nevada won the turnover battle.
On the first play of the new drive, Jones ripped a 10-yard pass to Ramseur to move the Pack into the red zone. On the following play, Jones scrambled to his right to avoid the New Mexico pass rush, gaining 9 yards on the rush and moving his offense inside the 5. From there, Ramseur shot through the line of scrimmage and into the end zone to bring the score to 12-14. Nevada Head Coach Jeff Choate then elected to attempt a 2-point conversion that would tie the game. But Jones’ pass to Thomas failed and the Pack was unable to equalize heading into halftime.
The second half began with Nevada receiving the kickoff, which returner Ky Woods took for 19 yards. The Pack’s drive started with a 2-yard rush for Ramseur, and after two more short plays, the Reno offense was faced with a fourth-and-1 on their own 32-yard line.
That is where Choate chose to go for it. Ramseur’s rush was stood up at the line of scrimmage and the Lobos took over in prime field position.
New Mexico wasted no time capitalizing on their opportunity as McKinney took a zone run 22 yards to the house for a Lobos touchdown, making the score 21-12.
Nevada’s next drive took up over eight minutes of the game clock as the Pack used 15 plays; Carter Jones accounted for four first downs alone. Highlighted by a 13-yard completion to Brown and an 11-yard rush by Ramseur, Nevada drove 71 yards to set up on the New Mexico 4-yard line. That is when Ramseur found the end zone for his second touchdown of the evening, bringing the score to 21-19.
The Lobos’ following drive heated up quickly as Layne took a read option 54 yards before being chased down by Turner. This set up the New Mexico offense on the Wolf Pack’s own 11-yard line. After two short rushes, New Mexico committed a false start, leaving them to attempt a 29-yard field goal. Kicker Luke Drzewiecki made the kick andextended the Lobos’ lead to 24-19 heading into the fourth quarter.
The quarter began as Nevada quarterback Chubba Purdy took a jet pass from Jones for 11 yards and a first down. On the following play, Jones completed a pass up the seam to Thomas for 24 yards to take the Pack across midfield. After a New Mexico sack left the Wolf Pack offense with a third-and-15, Jones completed a 20-yard pass down the right sideline to Brown to net his team a first down.
The next three plays were all incompletions, which left Nevada with a 41-yard field goal attempt. McFadden hit his third field goal of the contest to bring the score to 24-22.
From there, both New Mexico and Nevada sported unsuccessful drives that left the score unchanged. That is when the Lobos took the ball back with just over two minutes remaining in the game. The Pack had zero timeouts left to stop the clock.
A New Mexico first down would seal the game for the Lobos. Two quick plays set up for third-and-5, where Layne rolled out and flipped a pass to McKinney, who was tackled 1 yard short of the line to gain. This set up a game-defining fourth-and-1. With the match hanging in the balance, the Lobos gave the ball to Humphrey, who gained 2 yards and a first down.
Carter Jones finished the game with 202 yards and a 79 percent completion rate; Both career highs for the freshman signal-caller.
Nevada’s next challenge comes Friday, Oct. 24, at 7:00 p.m. against Boise State (5-2, 3-0).
