(Credit: Derek Raridon/Nevada Sagebrush)
Saturday night’s game against San Diego State was filled with a lot of positives before the game. It was family night, there was a drone show at halftime, and true freshman Carter Jones was getting the starting nod at quarterback.
Those positive hopes diminished, and they did so pretty quickly. Nevada simply had no answer on either side of the ball, losing 44-10 to the Aztecs at home. Nevada dropped to 1-5 and 0-2 in conference play, while extending its 13-game losing streak against conference opponents.
14:01: 75-yard TD punt return by Jordan Napier (Gabriel Plascencia PAT)
San Diego State 7 – Nevada 0
7:11: Chris Johnson 40-yard pick six (Gabriel Plascencia PAT)
San Diego State 14 – Nevada 0
14:57: Jayden Denegal 2-yard TD pass to Christian Washington (Gabriel Plascencia PAT)
San Diego State 21 – Nevada 0
9:05: Jayden Denegal 31-yard TD pass to Jacob Bostick (Gabriel Plascencia PAT)
San Diego State 28 – Nevada 0
1:46: Lucky Sutton 3-yard TD run (Gabriel Plascencia PAT)
San Diego State 35 – Nevada 0
10:49- Gabriel Plascencia 21-yard FG
San Diego State 38 – Nevada 0
Gabriel Plascencia 45-yard FG
San Diego State 41 – Nevada 0
2:03: Gabriel Plascencia 49-yard FG
San Diego State 44 – Nevada 0
12:50: Joe McFadden 34-yard FG
San Diego State 44 – Nevada 3
2:32: Carter Jones 16-yard TD pass to Marshaun Brown (Joe McFadden PAT)
San Diego State 44 – Nevada 10
Final: San Diego State 44, Nevada 10
This game marked the start of a potential new era for Nevada football with Jones getting the starting nod. He looked great in the final two quarters against Fresno State last week and was hoping to offer new hope after the 1-4 start.
But new QB, same results in the first half of this one. The first two drives for Nevada’s offense resulted in three-and-outs. The next two drives were even worse, as Jones threw back-to-back interceptions, with the first one being returned for a 40-yard TD by SDSU cornerback Chris Johnson.
Nevada’s offense wasn’t able to cross the 50-yard mark until its second drive of the second quarter, which went nine plays for 68 yards and took the Wolf Pack to the Aztecs’ seven-yard line. Nevada faced two fourth downs on that drive, converting the first but failing to do so on the second, throwing away a prime opportunity to score its first points of the game.
“We’ve got to learn from this,” head coach Jeff Choate said after the game. “We’ve gotta wear it, we’ve gotta own it, we’ve gotta go to work tomorrow.”
Jones finished the first half 10-19 with 99 yards and two picks. He finished the entire night 16-32 with 177 yards. Nevada’s offense picked up 254 total yards and had a time of possession of 28:36.
Nevada was shut out until the fourth quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Joe McFadden. The first touchdown of the game for the Pack came shortly after when Jones found Marshaun Brown in the end zone. It was Brown’s first collegiate touchdown.
But those two scores came far too late. This is how Nevada’s offensive drives ended:
- Punt
- Punt
- INT
- INT
- Punt
- Turnover on downs
- Punt
- Punt
- FG
- Punt
- TD
Not an ideal offense in the slightest. But Choate said he knew it would be a tough opener for Jones, given the physicality of San Diego State, and the staff chose to leave him out for the whole game to work through those nerves and find some positives.
“If I didn’t feel like Carter [Jones] was prepared to lead this program, I wouldn’t have put him out there,” Choate said. “And I don’t think that any one individual was going to be responsible for how things went tonight.”
San Diego State attacked in all three phases of the game, starting with its special teams. After Nevada’s first offensive drive stalled, the punt was returned by Jordan Napier for a 75-yard TD to make it an early 7-0 ballgame.
The first official offensive drive for the Aztecs ended in a punt, keeping early life alive for the Pack. After going up 14-0 from the pick six, San Diego State had three more offensive drives in the first half, scoring a touchdown in all of them.
San Diego State took a 35-0 lead into halftime.
“Once we kind of got punched in the mouth early in the game, we didn’t respond very well, and it took us really until halftime to kind of get settled down and put some things in place,” Choate said. “We had to make some pretty significant adjustments on defense, in particular for some of the things that they were doing. We also really did a poor job, in my opinion, at responding to the level of physicality that San Diego State played with.”
Aztecs’ quarterback Jayden Denegal had two first-half touchdowns and finished the night 14-17 with 205 yards. San Diego State’s offense put up 411 total yards while picking up 19 first downs.
The rush attack couldn’t really be stopped, either. San Diego State used four different rushers, combining for 206 yards and an average of 5.2 yards. Running back Lucky Sutton was the lead rusher with 76 yards on 16 carries.
Nevada will go back on the road and face another wolf against New Mexico. The Lobos are coming off a 41-25 loss to Boise State and are currently 0-2 in conference play and 3-3 overall.
Kick-off is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. PST on Saturday, Oct. 18, in New Mexico.