Line ‘em up: Predictions and Game Thread UNLV at UTEP
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It has worked, and if it was for penalties we'd be up bigger. So I get the approach. But still didn't quite try to dominate this game
Nice to get the road win. Too many penalties and more work needed on defense but a road win is a road win. It’s a positive step from a program perspective. Old UNLV would have lost this game. Take the W and get ready for Hawaii.
The offense is still learning a new system with a qb who has what 2 games under his belt? New coach who is recruiting his ass off with mostly a brand new entire defense. Even with some sloppiness that are going to win by double digits closing as a dog in the game. The D bends quite a bit but is having moments that is making the game winnable. We were a bottom feeder forever and a day, yet you guys think this D is gonna shut people out all of a sudden and the O will put up 45ppg without any hiccups. The only thing that is the same ole is the fans thinking we will be contending for a playoff spot at the end of the season. Typically we would be 0-3 or 1-2 right now, but they are pulling off some ugly wins. That’s what teams do that are turning the corner a bit.
Humor me for a minute…
What if UNLV’s only loss of the season was to #2 Michigan?
Shut up. Just think about it for a sec.
What if UNLV’s only loss of the season was to #2 Michigan?
Shut up. Just think about it for a sec.
They will have beaten two ranked teams if that's the case. I anticipate AFA and Fresno St to be ranked when UNLV plays them. Maybe Wyoming too.
We are making mental mistakes on Both sides of the ball. We have very difficult games coming up with WYOMING,Fresno and AFA. We have to play clean (very few penalties). These things will have to get fixed in practice. I believe we could be looking at a 8 or 9 win season if things work out. The next 2 games are against rivals HI and UNR .If we win those then we are looking at CSU and Fresno.
There's no way AFA or Fresno are ranked by time we're on their schedules... their schedules suck, especially Air Force, so yeah, they might end up with a loss or might be undefeated at some point, but they won't be ranked when we play them... and honestly, if they are nursing that 10-0 record say AFA, that is just ripe for us to pull an upset...
Fresno may be ranked. They may represent the MWC in a BCS bowl.
Good road win. Maiava didn’t play as well as last week, but 1) was still solid and 2) didn’t need to considering how well we ran the ball. Difference between an OK vs good vs great season will be how we improve defensively. Need to play better than we did today. Still, I think 6/7 wins should be the floor regardless. This is UNLV though, so don’t want to take anything for granted.
UNLV waS FAVOred by 1 pt. One as in "uno" point right before the game and won by 3 scores on the road. Refs with weird calls and all. Three SCORES. UNLV is 3-1 going to play Hawaii at home for the right to be 4-1.
Never had issues with the defense side of the ball. Yes, it can improves. Comparing to a lot of teams I watched yesterday, it is not too bad.
Never had issues with the defense side of the ball. Yes, it can improves. Comparing to a lot of teams I watched yesterday, it is not too bad.
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The game was pretty similar to what I was thinking heading in. UTEP is a really bad team and UNLV was going to win by a couple scores.
UNLV has covered, with ease, in all four games.
Defense was undisciplined as hell tonight. Not just with so many untimely penalties. They didn’t tackle nearly as much. Maybe partially by design, coverage was really weak. If this game was lost, it’d have been on the defense.
Obviously ran it extremely well. Maiava wasn’t great, was pretty decent, but showing for the second game in a row that he has a penchant for some hair-brain plays with decision making.
They’re where we expected so far, for the most part. Two incredibly important games upcoming, games that UNLV should absolutely win. Soft part of the schedule, you have to tear it up.
UNLV has covered, with ease, in all four games.
Defense was undisciplined as hell tonight. Not just with so many untimely penalties. They didn’t tackle nearly as much. Maybe partially by design, coverage was really weak. If this game was lost, it’d have been on the defense.
Obviously ran it extremely well. Maiava wasn’t great, was pretty decent, but showing for the second game in a row that he has a penchant for some hair-brain plays with decision making.
They’re where we expected so far, for the most part. Two incredibly important games upcoming, games that UNLV should absolutely win. Soft part of the schedule, you have to tear it up.
Two big penalties in bad moments (roughing the passer on 3rd down and roughing the punter) both resulted in TD’s for UTEP. Without those, we’d be looking at 45-14 game. Have to clean up the penalties.
I thought the defense played decent for the first half of the game, then seemed to take their foot off the gas. Overall, our defense won’t be good enough to make up for untimely mistakes.
I thought the defense played decent for the first half of the game, then seemed to take their foot off the gas. Overall, our defense won’t be good enough to make up for untimely mistakes.
Our defense was undisciplined (10 penalties) but we held their run game to 91 yards and had 3 INT. Our pass defense has a lot to be desired. Overall our defense seems to be better than it has been in most years over the past 20.
Our offense looks pretty good. Maiava is solid - especially for a freshman. His passing and poise seems way better than DB. Doug does seem to be better running the ball but I'd rather have a QB who can manage the game, pass the ball a run a little than the opposite.
I absolutely believe coach Odom will fix the penalty issue. He's been around a long time and has seen this before. I think Maiava will start until he shows weakness.
I believe there are 4 more wins out there for us.
Our offense looks pretty good. Maiava is solid - especially for a freshman. His passing and poise seems way better than DB. Doug does seem to be better running the ball but I'd rather have a QB who can manage the game, pass the ball a run a little than the opposite.
I absolutely believe coach Odom will fix the penalty issue. He's been around a long time and has seen this before. I think Maiava will start until he shows weakness.
I believe there are 4 more wins out there for us.
Air Force is mid November. If they are undefeated, they will definitely be ranked. You don't go unranked as an undefeated team through 10 games. Our run defense is much more competent than our pass D, but we all know what AFA does is different than simply running the ball. It's confusing and requires discipline to defend. After 9 penalties or whatever it was for almost 100 yards, discipline is a concern.
Fresno is undefeated and play at Wyoming in 2 weeks. After TTU win and hanging with Texas, I think Wyoming gets a little love. If Fresno is undefeated they will be ranked. They are already lime 3rd or 4th in receiving votes.
With that roughing the passer bullshit call it could have gone the other way. Looking at that play it looked as if Woodard was in physical contact with the QB before he threw the ball. Some will call it undisciplined because the flag was thrown but I'm going to call it an aggressive play and I'll take it.
Maiava benefitted from this game. A good amount of playing time earning good experience. He will get better as he has better instincts. There were a couple of brain farts but we're going to get those from a freshman unlike the brain farts from upper classman with several years of experience.
A good win for the Rebels on the road. Time to get ready for Hawaii.
Maiava benefitted from this game. A good amount of playing time earning good experience. He will get better as he has better instincts. There were a couple of brain farts but we're going to get those from a freshman unlike the brain farts from upper classman with several years of experience.
A good win for the Rebels on the road. Time to get ready for Hawaii.
Optimistically, I see 6 more “winnable” games
Hawaii
UNR
CSU
New Mexico
Wyoming
SJSU
Out of those first 4, win 3/4 and we’re bowling.
Out of the last 2, we’ll have to play well, but a split there would be good.
Do that and we’re looking at 7-5. I think they can do it.
This was a mixed bag, even for a 17 point win on the road against a team that isn't very good--a team that went blow for blow with us for 3 quarters, so I think this sort of shows us where we're at. We're better than UTEP at this point, but I don't think we're good enough to challenge for the conference. But there's a LOT to clean up here, and there's a lot of room for growth. And lets face it, this is a game where after that 3rd quarter on the road there aren't a lot of UNLV teams that put the nail in the coffin and win by 3 scores.
We had some bad breaks with one roughing the passer and one pass interference that I felt were poor calls, but really lots of discipline error and some poor tackling. That little number 5 runs hard and is hard to find, but he broke way too many tackles to turn them into big gains--at least 3-4 times we had him wrapped up and he got lose for big positive gains.
The defensive philosophy is clearly to bend but don't break, and really we did better statistically than I thought with the eye test. 54% completion percentage allowed, 3 INTs, 4 sacks, and a allowed passer rating of 41.1 and 7 of 31 passes defended. Even with #5 having a solid game, we still only allowed 91 yards on 34 rushes (2.7 ypc) and had 9 tackles for loss. Really, with those numbers you'd think this was a 25 point blow out. I think we consistently had some let downs in key downs and distances, and the tackling was probably the worst I've seen from this squad this season.
Offensively I thought the Go-Go did exactly what I expected it to pre-season. Not give you a ton of TOP but wear defenses out with tempo and forcing tired guys to stay disciplined. 300 yards rushing and nearly 500 yards of total offense with 75 offensive plays in just 30 minutes of possession is pretty nuts. And that's still with Maiava missing 3 option reads that would have gotten bigger yards than the option he chose.
Also, can we talk about how good special teams has been? Blocked punt, sub 20 yards per kick off return, gross punt average of 49, no punt returns allowed one inside 20, 100% on all kicking opportunities. It's amazing how much better your chances of winning games on the road go up when you clearly win the third phase of the game.
Overall, I'm not ecstatic, but I'm pretty happy.
We had some bad breaks with one roughing the passer and one pass interference that I felt were poor calls, but really lots of discipline error and some poor tackling. That little number 5 runs hard and is hard to find, but he broke way too many tackles to turn them into big gains--at least 3-4 times we had him wrapped up and he got lose for big positive gains.
The defensive philosophy is clearly to bend but don't break, and really we did better statistically than I thought with the eye test. 54% completion percentage allowed, 3 INTs, 4 sacks, and a allowed passer rating of 41.1 and 7 of 31 passes defended. Even with #5 having a solid game, we still only allowed 91 yards on 34 rushes (2.7 ypc) and had 9 tackles for loss. Really, with those numbers you'd think this was a 25 point blow out. I think we consistently had some let downs in key downs and distances, and the tackling was probably the worst I've seen from this squad this season.
Offensively I thought the Go-Go did exactly what I expected it to pre-season. Not give you a ton of TOP but wear defenses out with tempo and forcing tired guys to stay disciplined. 300 yards rushing and nearly 500 yards of total offense with 75 offensive plays in just 30 minutes of possession is pretty nuts. And that's still with Maiava missing 3 option reads that would have gotten bigger yards than the option he chose.
Also, can we talk about how good special teams has been? Blocked punt, sub 20 yards per kick off return, gross punt average of 49, no punt returns allowed one inside 20, 100% on all kicking opportunities. It's amazing how much better your chances of winning games on the road go up when you clearly win the third phase of the game.
Overall, I'm not ecstatic, but I'm pretty happy.
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Defense actually had a decent game. UTEP is not good, but their offense is their better unit.
Penalties killed some drives and some of our coverages seem to be easily recognized.
Offensively we were in ground and pound mode. JM made a couple of good throws, some bad throws, and a couple of WTF throws. But was not asked to do much. This team Is built to throw it downfield with the speed that we have and is a staple of the GoGo and we still haven't seen it this season. Part of that may be our pass protection which has struggled this season.
I think our offense still isn't fully worked out. It is possible that the plan all alo g was to run the ball, Control time of possession and keep their offense off the field. And it worked.
But that rough the kicker call was absolute BS. He went for the block, tried to avoid him and nicked his leg. 5 yard penalty 100%.
The roughing the passer looked like a perfect play but he may have driven him into the ground. The awesome broadcast did not show it. But the initial was perfectly timed it altered the throw and wrapped him up text book.
The taunting penalty was totally garbage. Not sure what Oliver said, but their CB that was on White was talking sh!t demonstrably every single play that wasn't a big catch against him.
We did catch a break on that play that pro ably should have been a fumble. It wasn't targeting, he had one step and some forward momentum. 50/50 incomplete vs fumble. If they didn't blow it dead its possible that would have stayed as a fumble.
Penalties killed some drives and some of our coverages seem to be easily recognized.
Offensively we were in ground and pound mode. JM made a couple of good throws, some bad throws, and a couple of WTF throws. But was not asked to do much. This team Is built to throw it downfield with the speed that we have and is a staple of the GoGo and we still haven't seen it this season. Part of that may be our pass protection which has struggled this season.
I think our offense still isn't fully worked out. It is possible that the plan all alo g was to run the ball, Control time of possession and keep their offense off the field. And it worked.
But that rough the kicker call was absolute BS. He went for the block, tried to avoid him and nicked his leg. 5 yard penalty 100%.
The roughing the passer looked like a perfect play but he may have driven him into the ground. The awesome broadcast did not show it. But the initial was perfectly timed it altered the throw and wrapped him up text book.
The taunting penalty was totally garbage. Not sure what Oliver said, but their CB that was on White was talking sh!t demonstrably every single play that wasn't a big catch against him.
We did catch a break on that play that pro ably should have been a fumble. It wasn't targeting, he had one step and some forward momentum. 50/50 incomplete vs fumble. If they didn't blow it dead its possible that would have stayed as a fumble.
Fresno State is ranked in the new AP poll.
AFA is receiving votes in the coaches poll.
AFA people said that this is their best team for a while. I dont what that mean? I thought they had one helluva team last year? They have 10 returning starters on the offence and 6 returning defensive starters. Can we beat them?
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If they're 10-0 coming into that game in late November and ranked, yes... those are exactly the type of upset settings you see in College Football...AFA people said that this is their best team for a while. I dont what that mean? I thought they had one helluva team last year? They have 10 returning starters on the offence and 6 returning defensive starters. Can we beat them?
That's one game i don't think we will be even be in. I doubt we will have gap discipline enough to slow them down consistently. Our run D has been solid, but AFA isn't just a normal run heavy team.AFA people said that this is their best team for a while. I dont what that mean? I thought they had one helluva team last year? They have 10 returning starters on the offence and 6 returning defensive starters. Can we beat them?
I'm not confident on the CSU win anymore. Their offense is clicking with Fowler and they have a lot of good pass catchers, which is something we struggle with covering.
Can we beat them? Sure, but it will take a load of mistakes by them and a clean game by us.AFA people said that this is their best team for a while. I dont what that mean? I thought they had one helluva team last year? They have 10 returning starters on the offence and 6 returning defensive starters. Can we beat them?
Yeah I think they blow us out..and its at their house too.
Was anyone else sort of feeling bad for UTEP last night? I mean, it was like looking in a mirror from our last couple decades of football. The stadium, the fans, the UTEP team was basically UNLV from 2009 - 2021.
I mean, we haven't surpassed them by much, but I generally the culture, the new stadium and DNA of the team is at least a step above what it used to be.
I mean, we haven't surpassed them by much, but I generally the culture, the new stadium and DNA of the team is at least a step above what it used to be.
I think Hawaii, UNR, and UNM should all be wins.
CSU and SJSU are possible wins
AF, Fresno, and Wyoming are losses.
But anyway you look at it UNLV should go between 6-8 wins and bowl bound this year. Which is a huge improvement.
They still had 20k+ fans there. UNLV until this year was way less
I feel bad their fans have to listen to the audio feed from the 90s and watch traffic cone inspired uniforms... but yeah, some people keep asking why MWC doesn't add more teams and places like UTEP are that reason.. no value
They blew us out at their house last time. DB's best moves in that game were to tuck and drop because they beat him up soundly.
There are parallels … a school that won a basketball championship eons ago and has been irrelevant since … that also has a historically poor football program.
Agreed!
We will have to be improved on D to even have a chance against the Fresno’s, AFA’s and Wyo’s of the world. The CSU’s and SJSU’s are better teams than we think, they can be beaten but not by the bumbling things we do in games from blown coverages, penalties and predictable play calling. Odom is our only hope but that D has got to be better than what we have seen on the backend or 6-6 could be missed by a single game!
Those were pretty bad uniforms...i think if you're going to go with olive camo, you have to pick another base color and use orange as sort of a highlight. They looked like the bought those off the floor at Cabela's for deer hunting season on clearance--which is sad because they were supposed to be an homage to service members.
Fully agree with you here. UNLV won't beat more than one or two teams left on the schedule playing how they did yesterday. Secondary has got to be better, and they cannot commit the consistent penalties of all types they did yesterday.
I dont agree with all of the officiating from that UTEP game, but they definitely didn't play a clean game. They'll have to be much cleaner.
I like our chances vs AFA because we have speed on defense and are deep in the LB core.
Do I think we will win? Probably not. But I think we have a defense that is actually favorable against them.
I know last game was a bit ugly. But we won by 3 scores, playing conservative and with huge mistakes that gave them extra chances.
Our first two games were very clean in terms of penalties. Hopefully this staff can right the ship in that regard.
Anyone can beat us, except maybe Reno. But I think we can beat nearly anyone as well. Fresno will be the biggest challenge for sure, but we have potential to give them a game.
This offense still isn't fully unleashed. Curious if will it happen this year and when. I think that fact is the wild card on this team's ceiling this season.
Do I think we will win? Probably not. But I think we have a defense that is actually favorable against them.
I know last game was a bit ugly. But we won by 3 scores, playing conservative and with huge mistakes that gave them extra chances.
Our first two games were very clean in terms of penalties. Hopefully this staff can right the ship in that regard.
Anyone can beat us, except maybe Reno. But I think we can beat nearly anyone as well. Fresno will be the biggest challenge for sure, but we have potential to give them a game.
This offense still isn't fully unleashed. Curious if will it happen this year and when. I think that fact is the wild card on this team's ceiling this season.
It'll probably happen more and more if we commit to Maiava at QB and not flip back to Doug for a few games till he inevitably gets knocked out of a game again... like I really don't want to see us go back to Doug next week have 2-3 weeks of mediocre play vs bad teams where we get close wins and where we enter a big game and lays and egg vs Fresno similar to last yr vs SJSU... just to then go back to Maiava for a few weeks... offense needs to continue getting time together and I can only see good things from that
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