Get ready, Ponies: Nevada slaps San Jose State

[DallasDiehard]

Wolf Pack slams Spartans
Rowe leads Nevada to third straight win with 42-24 victory over San Jose State

Chad Hartley RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

The last time Nevada had a three-game win streak, Chris Ault was the athletic director, Jeff Rowe was a freshman in high school and the Wolf Pack was still in the Big West.

Now this Pack team needs just two victories to become bowl eligible and for its first winning season since 1998 after Saturday night’s 42-24 victory over San Jose State at Mackay Stadium before an actual crowd was 10,648.

“I’ve never had three in row here before,” junior J.J. Milan said. “It feels good just to keep winning. When you get out of the game you are all beat up and everything. But if it is a win, man, there is nothing better than that.”

Rowe, the sophomore quarterback, had been stellar in the last two Pack victories and he continued his string of good play against the Spartans. The sophomore completed 25-of-35 for 252 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. He was sacked only once and also had eight carries for 31 yards on the ground.

“I thought Jeff was very good passing tonight, very accurate,” Ault said. “He made a lot of nice audibles and handled things really well out there. And the offensive front, each week they just get a little bit better.”

The offensive line paved the way for a modest 202-yard effort that included four rushing touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Drew Robinson had two of the scores with B.J. Mitchell and Chance Kretschmer each scoring once. Robinson finished with 71 yards on the ground in seeing extensive playing time for the first time in a month as Kretschmer left the game in the second half with an ankle injury.

“I’m third string, I get in when first two get injured or winded,” Robinson said. “My thing is speed and when offensive line is giving me holes like they did tonight, it gives me a chance to just sprint.”

This wasn’t one of the wild shootouts that Nevada and San Jose State are used to playing. Instead, Nevada easily built up a 14-0 first-half lead and then just maintained a comfortable advantage throughout.

There were a few miscues and missteps when it came to focus and execution. But whenever San Jose State tried to mount a charge, the Pack answered.

The Spartans came out of halftime stifling Nevada on its opening series and then getting on the scoreboard with a field goal.

But the Pack came right back when Caleb Spencer scored on a 10-yard screen pass to make it 21-3.

San Jose State needed just five plays to make it 21-10 on a Lance Martin 3-yard run. But the Pack defense answered after that.

After a Pack punt, San Jose State had the ball at its own 19-yard line and was starting to build some momentum. Quaterback Dale Rogers dropped back to pass and was crushed by blitzing linebacker Shaun Tagatauli. The ball came loose and Tagatauli recovered it at the Spartan 5.

The Pack scored on the next play as Kretschmer ran it in from 5 yards out on a throwback pass play that didn’t developed when Rowe tripped after the handoff and the Spartans were in a zone instead of man defense. No matter, Kretschmer pulled it down and plowed into the end zone behind a strong block from guard Chris Hines.

“That is what Chance does,” Rowe said. “He makes plays. I should have checked out of it but Chance made the play.”

And that is what the Pack did all night – it made plays when it needed to to keep the Spartans out of reach.

After halftime, San Jose State never got within 11.

“We were talking the whole time on sidelines that this is San Jose and we have to stay in and do our jobs,” Milan said. “We did let up a couple times in the second half but overall, we kept our focus.”

The Pack led 14-0 at halftime, a lead that could have been both cut in half or extended in the final few minutes of the second quarter.

With a little more than 2 minutes left in the half, the Pack defense forced San Jose State to punt. Pack return man Alex Rosenblum muffed the punt and Roderick Stallings tried to pick it up but couldn’t and the Spartans recovered on the Nevada 18-yard line.

But the Spartans couldn’t capitalize as linebacker Roosevelt Cooks forced Tyson Thompson to fumble on the Nevada 9 and J.J. Milan recovered.

“That fumble really killed our momentum,” San Jose State coach Fitz Hill said. “We had some miscues offensively in the red zone and we didn’t get enough stops on defense.”

With just over a minute to play, Rowe got the two-minute drill going. Using his arm and his legs, the sophomore moved the Pack down to the Spartan 29-yard line with six seconds left, but Damon Fine missed a 46-yard field goal attempt.

For two teams accustomed to scoring points by the bushels, the scoring was slow early on.

The Pack jumped out on top 7-0 when Spencer hauled in a 4-yard pass from Rowe with 1:51 left in the first quarter. It was a 10-play drive that required the Pack to complete three third-down conversions, which Rowe did with a 23-yard pass to Spencer, an 18-yarder to Nichiren Flowers and then the TD pass to Spencer.

The Pack defense held on the ensuing drive and the offense then put together another 10-play, clock-eating scoring drive. The Pack probably scored when Flowers took a middle screen and raced 18 yards to the 1-yard line. Replays showed that Flowers should have been credited with the touchdown, which instead went two plays later to B.J. Mitchell, who punched it in from the 1 for a 14-0 lead.

Rowe was brilliant in the first half, completing 13-of-15 for 156 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions. He finished the first half by completing 11 straight passes. He also bolstered what had been an anemic running attack by gaining 15 yards on three scrambles.

[Corso]

Sounds like the reports of Nevada's death were a bit preemature, no?

Come on, Ponies - make it 2 in a row!