The Nevada football team’s 28-13 victory over San Jose State University served as an excellent showcase of the Wolf Pack’s greatest strengths, shedding light on how the team should win moving forward.
Whether it be the productive rushing attack or the seemingly improved quarterback play, Nevada’s offense led the way for the first time in what felt like a long time. Under head coach Jeff Choate, the Pack has consistently sported above-average defenses (as it’s Choate’s forte) while charting underwhelming offenses. That being said, Saturday’s win over the Spartans could be a sign of things to come for the offensive unit.
But before we analyze senior quarterback Luke Duncan and company, we must first acknowledge Nevada’s defense. The group held San Jose’s offense to just 13 points, while keeping both Spartan quarterbacks under 100 yards passing.
The defensive performance echoed their blowout win over SJSU last year, when Nevada allowed 10 points while completely stifling their explosive air-raid offense. So, this is nothing new for Choate’s defensive unit; in fact, it was almost expected — and the Wolf Pack delivered.
With five games left on the schedule, Nevada’s defense will have to play the suffocating style of football if the Pack wants to push for a bowl appearance.
The Nevada offense has been a wild card all year long, ranging from dominant play against Western Kentucky to scoring just 7 points against Montana State; you never know what you’re going to get from this group. Today’s win, though, showed exactly what the Pack’s offensive attack needs to be for the team to pick up some late-season wins.
Against teams such as San Jose State, all Nevada has to do is play clean football and score, even if they only score a couple of times. We saw that today, with the team’s defense giving the offense the ball back in decent field position, allowing them to control the clock and score a few touchdowns along the way.
In some ways, this was the perfect Wolf Pack win. The team was not forced to rely on Luke Duncan and his ability, or lack thereof, to play hero-ball.
Instead, the team’s ground game kept the offense ahead of the sticks for the most part, making Duncan’s job much easier. The offense did score four touchdowns, including a trick-play passing touchdown from receiver Marshaun Brown. While the defense kept Spartan scoring to a minimum, the Pack cruised to victory over their conference opponent. This game essentially writes the recipe for victory that Nevada should use down the stretch in their season.
Going forward, Nevada faces a tough schedule, taking on No. 7 ranked University of California, Los Angeles this weekend and conference powerhouses New Mexico and University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Nevada will likely only be expected to beat Northern Illinois and Hawaii, which would put them at 5 wins come season’s end. So, to make a bowl game for the first time in the Choate era, the Wolf Pack will have to upset one of these three teams.
My upset pick: UNLV. The battle for the Fremont Cannon is always one of the most anticipated matchups, but this season, Nevada has a real chance to make it more competitive than in years past.
With the Rebels sitting at just 4-3, this could be the Pack’s chance to paint the cannon blue and punch their ticket to a bowl game.
