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UNLV has been victimized by big plays the last two weeks, resulting in back-to-back blowout losses to New Mexico and Utah State, but on Monday head coach Tony Sanchez said he doesn’t want his players to focus on that. He wants his team to focus on the details and correct the small mistakes that lead to big plays.
While the Rebels defense has allowed at least 50 points in each of the last two games, Sanchez pointed to the little things as the problem. Those tiny details have added up, and UNLV now sits at a disappointing 2-4 (0-2 Mountain West) at the midway point of the season.
In UNLV’s 59-28 loss at Utah State on Saturday, the Rebels’ miscues were particularly costly. An interception thrown by quarterback Max Gilliam, a misplay after a penalty by cornerback Alex Perry and a blocked punt all led to USU touchdowns.
“It wasn’t just the defense giving up big plays,” Sanchez said. “One was an offensive mistake, one of them was a defensive mistake, and one of them is special teams. We’ve got to clean up all three phases.”
The Rebel Room
No more blowouts
UNLV gave up 50+ points for the second straight week to lose big and fall to 0-2 in Mountain West Conference play. All hope may not be lost, but it's trending that way especially if the Rebels can't rebound against Air Force and San Jose State over the next two weeks.
The Rebels will head into Friday’s home date with Air Force in a must-win mindset. Air Force is 2-4 (0-3 MWC) and represents one of the more winnable games left on the schedule, though UNLV will enter as a double-digit underdog. The Falcons are a strong defensive team (21.8 points allowed) and are coming off a near-upset of conference contender San Diego State last week, so UNLV will have to play a clean game.
Error-free football has been elusive for the Rebels during their current 3-game losing streak. Armani Rogers was intercepted three times in a 7-point loss at Arkansas State, the Rebels fumbled a punt return against New Mexico, and the bloopers were too many to count at Utah State.
In the big picture, that skid has made a bowl berth an unlikely outcome for UNLV. Rogers is still expected to miss another four weeks, and the offense hasn’t been the same without him, averaging just 21.0 points with Gilliam at the helm (compared with 34.8 points with Rogers at QB). But a win against Air Force would at least give the Rebels hope and keep the season alive, turning next week’s trip to San Jose State into the biggest game of the season so far.
Sanchez said his team can’t afford to look that far ahead, however. He wants the Rebels to execute the finer points first, and let the big-picture stuff take care of itself.
“What’s important is us focusing on Air Force,” Sanchez said. “Coming up with a good, solid game plan, executing at a high level, coming up with a good defensive game plan, tackling well in space, playing the deep ball better and playing a good, solid game. Special teams, being solid, not giving up things like blocked punts, making plays, catching the punts better. We need to execute those things in order to beat Air Force.”
Thomas bounces back
Senior running back Lexington Thomas was knocked out of the Utah State game after taking a blow to the head in the third quarter, but Sanchez said Thomas is on track to play against Air Force on Friday.
Thomas didn’t practice on Monday, and Sanchez said he may not practice at all this week. But considering Thomas’ veteran status, Sanchez said he’d be comfortable playing Thomas as long as he participates in UNLV’s walk-through on Thursday.
With Rogers out, Thomas is UNLV’s top offensive threat. He has run for 556 yards on 97 attempts (5.7 yards per carry) and scored a team-high six touchdowns. With six games remaining, Thomas is 694 yards away from becoming the school’s all-time leading rusher.
Gilliam still starting
Sanchez said he saw enough from Gilliam to stick with the sophomore for at least another week. Freshman Kenyon Oblad remains the No. 2 quarterback, but Sanchez said he would be comfortable putting Oblad on the field if he proves himself to be the better option.
“At some point he may very well get into a football game,” Sanchez said. “I think Max is playing well enough right now where we don’t think it’s a dual quarterback situation. We don’t think we’re close to anything like that right now. But if the situation calls for it, yeah we’ll put [Oblad] in.”
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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