Plenty of fingers to point all around. One team played the 4th quarter desperate and hungry, the other team played like it was scared to lose. I'll definitely watch this crap show again tomorrow and really look at the tape.
Official Game Thread UNLV at Fresno State Game Thread, Friday, 10/16 at 730 pm, ESPN2
- Thread starter j. spilotro
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Tough loss. KP has to be one of the worst qbs ive ever seen. If your yelling at a player after every single possession maybe you should go with another qb. Just dont understand the decision to keep playing this guy. Id take a 20% Decker over this KP. Great athlete but hes just not a qb. Please tell me theres a good reason were not lifting the redshirt on Sneed because the Mtn west is terrible this year and we probaly already blew it! Smh all night!!!
We ran it to milk it? Or because we were trying to avoid a critical mistake when we dropped back?
Probably a little of both.
They challenged us to throw it. We couldn't. A brutal performance out of the QB spot.
I can't think of a QB I would take KP over. Shane Steichen, Caleb Herring, Omar Clayton.... Hell, put Sergio Aguayo in there at the QB spot.
Im not making an excuse for the sacks at the end, but on 3Rd down, of course you can't take a sack, BUT you could have a tailback RUN the ball there and we wouldve had a manageable 4th down if you don't get the first....but NO, our STAFF decides to drop back a guy that isn't good at doing it....it was a stupid call...as were the tight formations/up the gut runs when we had the lead and the ball back on the 15 yard line...safety calls instead of trying to win.
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The other thing exposed by San Jose State last week and blew up by Fresno tonight was our inability to defend misdirection because we overpursue.
I'd say Coach Sanchez is finally getting a taste of what it's like for all the local high schools in Vegas having to go up against Bishop Gorman's recruiting, except he hasn't played Boise, or Utah State...yet.
Easy now...Sherry red shirt freshmen year yes. Every game he played after the loss to Minnesota not so much. Jarrod Jackson was pretty bad.
This start by Palandech was really disappointing. I thought he showed a lot of moxie late in the San Jose State game. I thought drops hurt us in that one. This game, receivers came up and made some tough catches. Kurt really struggled to get rid of the ball quickly enough. In his defense the offensive line did not do a good job in pass protection. But his overall performance was not good enough.
The question now is, does the staff stick with him the rest of the year. A bowl game is probably out of the question now, so do you play Decker the rest of the way in what essentially is a lost season? Or do you keep going to Palandech to give him reps and get him ready for next year?
It's not out of the question just a lot more difficult. Still have three pretty tough games left with SDSU,Boise and CSU. Good thing is two of them are at home. We would have to go 4-1 down the stretch to be bowl eligible. I really hope it happens. Love all the improvements I see, just think the loss tonight really hurt those chances.
Sorry. I'm just aggravated. His feet were so happy in there, he looked like a pop warner QB in a D1 game. How he took sacks when he did - it's just inexcusable.
Truth be told, UNLV was pretty lucky to be up late. Two missed FG's, two costly TO's by FSU.
I'm pinning a lot on Palendech because he looked so inept, especially on that last series - but this team, except for some DB play at times, WAS NOT ready to play. They decided to sleepwalk most of the game. That's very inexcusable. Who is this program to overlook anyone?
A lot of blame was put on Sanchez. I have a hard time buying that he didn't take FSU seriously. That's just not his style. But something was lost in translation somewhere. I'm sure certain guys saw 5 losses in a row and it tempered their efforts a bit.
Now yeah, we were super conservative but if the QB demonstrates his ineffectiveness all game long, if you don't make the switch to Decker, you gotta be careful with dropping back. Seemed like he was a time bomb the entire 4th quarter. I know I tightened up every time he dropped back because you felt a TO or sack was coming, or he'd take off early to try and get back to the LOS.
A truly dreadful game. But I'm glad I'm angry. When losses don't faze you at all, your program is in a really bad spot. Losses haven't fazed me for a few years.
When the offense isn't being effective the answer can't be running the bal into the line of scrimmage over and over. At least go to a short route dump and dink game to gain 3-5 yards. Run more TE and RB short throws. That will open up the run game a bit. There is no excuse to run the ball into the line that many times. Now I could be wrong. I haven't seen how many times we ran it in the second half but it just seemed to me that they did. They were out coached completely.
I figured you were fired up when you invoked the name Jarrod Jackson.
That loss hurt for sure. I really thought Palandech would be better this week.
I think we are in a weird spot. The improvement on the field has been so obvious and refreshing we all seemingly forget this was a two win team last year, and very bad one at that, historically bad on defense.. There are some talented kids on this squad just not enough yet.
Initially I thought a lot had to do with protection issues. But based on the reaction towards Kurt by the coaches on the sideline it looks like they were not happy with his play or decision
Frustrating thing about Kurt is he shows some flashes. Just to much indecision.
That loss hurt for sure. I really thought Palandech would be better this week.
I think we are in a weird spot. The improvement on the field has been so obvious and refreshing we all seemingly forget this was a two win team last year, and very bad one at that, historically bad on defense.. There are some talented kids on this squad just not enough yet.
Initially I thought a lot had to do with protection issues. But based on the reaction towards Kurt by the coaches on the sideline it looks like they were not happy with his play or decision
Frustrating thing about Kurt is he shows some flashes. Just to much indecision.
I'm still a big picture guy and fully comprehend where UNLV has been recently and for a long, long time. So overall, last night's loss doesn't make me any more or any less optimistic about the future. I think UNLV will be fine moving forward and I expect baby steps for the first couple of seasons.
My goals were to see better fundamentals, better attitude, better schemes, a more clear philosophy, better coaching... And I'm satisfied with all that. More than I thought I'd be. And I think they'll continue to move in the right direction, especially as players are shuffled through the system. Last night's disappointing loss doesn't deter from that in any way.
But it was frustrating watching a lot of the basics fall by the wayside for most of the game. Nearly to a man. They just weren't nearly as focused as they needed to be.
Many will place that on Sanchez' shoulders and I don't think that's where the problem is. I guarantee he was as hungry and focused on this game as much as anyone - it's one of his strengths. I think some of the players just took things too lightly - like UNLV is better than what they actually are and Fresno was worse than they actually are. That can't happen and players gotta look themselves in the mirror and kick themselves for letting a potentially critical game slip away - because they weren't ready to play.
Lack of faith in the QB dictated the play calling. Palandech struggled almost the entire game. Coaches tried giving him easy throws early and he had limited results. He nearly threw two picks in the 3rd quarter.
Fresno coaches called a good game. I think Cotton and Sanchez squeezed all they could out of Palandech, it just wasn't enough.
Agree 100%.
Seemed like defense was a little flat early on, got better through middle of the game and then faded down the stretch. Offense didn't help with their inability to sustain drives.
It was a disappointing performance, in all three aspects of the game.
I don't think there was much of a choice but to stay conservative. At that point, it seemed to me to be the lesser of two evils.
Agreed, we were up 28-14 running a very vanilla offense. I wonder if Cotton had dialed up the passing game but the end result was the same, would people be wondering why we weren't running the ball to kill the clock. I just don't think there is enough faith in Kurt at this point to put the game in his hands.
I don't lay all the blame on Palandech (he deserves plenty though) But the flip side to this is the defense couldn't hold a lead two weeks in a row either. That's probably the next obstacle in building a winning program. The improvement is there, just not enough to get us over the hump yet.
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