Rebels’ late-game woes continue with BYU loss

By Ryan Greene

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008 | 11 p.m.

PROVO, Utah -- While the progress can be seen when you look at the 2008 season as a whole, progress doesn't guarantee wins.

And for the fourth straight week, that was the case for the UNLV football team, as it dipped to 3-5 on the season and 0-4 in Mountain West play with a 42-35 loss to BYU. The Cougars bounced back from their first loss of the season to improve to 7-1.

Inside of that, it was the third week in a row that the Rebels' fate was decided in the game's twilight moments.

Omar Clayton's 25-yard lob into a crowd in the back of the end zone was intercepted, and a loss was no easier to swallow than a one-point defeat at the hands of Air Force a week ago at home.

"We are absolutely never, ever, ever, ever satisfied with a loss," UNLV coach Mike Sanford said of a game that many observers might tag as a moral victory, considering the 52-7 loss BYU slapped on his club two years ago in Provo.

"On the other side of the coin, I would say that I'm very proud of our football team. I thought our football team played extremely hard, played with a lot of heart, played with a lot of passion and didn't make enough plays. Unfortunately, it's a recurring theme."

Also unfortunate for the Rebels is that the plays that were left on the table may go down as more memorable in the grand scheme than the ones that were made.

The first of those plays came on the game's initial play, as BYU's Austin Collie ran Ben Jaekle's kick back 75 yards from his own goal line, and five plays later, the shootout was on.

The special teams theme continued for UNLV, though, as the next miscue came with the game tied 14-14 in the second quarter. The Rebels were forced to punt from their own 5-yard line, and the Cougars became the first opponent to block a UNLV punt since the 2006 season. It set BYU up at the UNLV 15, and Harvey Unga bulled in from 2 yards out moments later to put the Cougars back on top.

UNLV gained some momentum before the half as Omar Clayton came back to lead a six-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Frank Summers' second short touchdown run of the game. The possession helped UNLV re-establish itself, as Clayton missed the entire previous series on the heels of a late, helmet-to-helmet hit that left him on the turf for a couple of minutes.

Fast forward a bit, and the Rebels were trailing just 31-28 when they faced a fourth-and-three from their own 34 early in the fourth quarter.

At that point, Dack Ishii -- the team's third-string quarterback turned punter -- lined up the special teams unit in a shotgun spread formation. The Cougars sniffed it out and broke up a pass to the flat which Ishii attempted to reserve wideout Gerold Rodriguez.

"That was just a bad decision on my part," Ishii said. "It was cover three, I threw the flat, I shouldn't have. I should have thrown the slant right behind it. We'd been practicing it all week. I just made a bad decision at a crucial time."

But the Rebels' defense helped the team's hopes stay afloat, holding BYU's offense to a second straight field goal deep in UNLV territory.

The offense offered some support as Clayton finished off a 60-yard drive with a 15-yard strike to Ryan Wolfe over the middle. It gave the Rebels their first lead at 35-34 with under seven minutes to play, but the familiar was all too familiar.

It was only three weeks ago when UNLV grabbed a one-point lead at Colorado State with 6:36 to go. The result was ultimately the same.

BYU's offense dinked, dunked and sucked time off the clock, with Max Hall's fourth touchdown pass coming with 1:46 to play, and a two-point conversion toss to Unga gave the Cougars a solid touchdown lead.

And as was the case a week ago, the offense got the ball rolling, but couldn't push through completely. Clayton's 20-yard strike to Wolfe on a third-and-10 got the ball down to the BYU 14, but the hail mary try followed a Matt Putnam sack on second-and-10.

"Just kind of bunch everyone together or just hope for a ball to fall around or maybe Phillip (Payne) can do some dramatics again, but it shouldn't have (come to that)," Wolfe said of the plan on the final play. "There were so many other plays in the ball game you could look back on."

And while those plays will surely be inspected early this week, now the Rebels are left to prepare for yet another juggernaut as No. 15 TCU gets set to head to Sam Boyd Stadium after thumping Wyoming on Saturday, 54-7.

But the Rebels without question seemed to emerge from the visitors' locker room Saturday in better spirits than was the case following their previous three losses in this mid-season swoon.

"You look at our offense today, and BYU has a good defense -- we moved the ball up and down the field all day. We're happy about that and we feel like we've closed that gap," wideout Casey Flair said of a goal Sanford set out for the program early in his tenure to narrow the distance in quality between his team and the conference's top tier. "We've closed that gap, and it shows in the last four weeks."

The offense has been proving that the gap has closed all season. Clayton was stellar yet again while battling with some lingering effects from two hits to his head. He was 26-of-40 on the afternoon for 321 yards and one score, while his offensive line and top targets all did their parts to help make him look good. The line picked up a good amount of blitzes, while Ryan Wolfe had 10 catches for 136 yards next to Flair's 92 yards on eight grabs.

The BYU offense, though, was just as efficient. Max Hall went 24-of-31 for 245 yards and four touchdown passes, with 113 of those yards going to Austin Collie on seven connections. The two-headed tailback combo of Harvey Unga and Fui Vakapuna combined for 156 yards on the ground.

The UNLV defense did allow 454 total yards of offense after surrendering 500-plus in three straight games. The unit came up with a key stop late in the first half and was key in holding BYU's lead to just six points to help mask the botched fake punt attempt. But BYU's final possession will keep the defense from being all too pleased with itself.

"Everyone was getting real fired up and we kept saying to ourselves 'We've got to stop them, we can't let it keep happening to us,'" linebacker Rusty Worthen said of the mindset heading onto the field before that drive. "I think a lot of guys do feel like we lost the game, like we should have stopped them, and I agree -- we should have stopped them. The offense, they played their butts off, and they were just moving the ball, so it basically came down to us and we didn't capitalize off of it."

While all the close misses could seem discouraging for the Rebels, there could be a bit of a silver lining on the horizon, as UNLV now begins a three-game home stretch. After TCU comes three games that would be tapped by many as winnable in the forms of New Mexico, Wyoming and San Diego State.

That said, the experience from pressure-packed, late-game situations might start to pay some dividends at some point, right?

There's no guarantee.

"The way our team has been playing all year, (we've been) in pressure situations, and sometimes we don't get it done," Wolfe said. "But every game you're going to learn something and get better for the next week. It's not fun, but if that's what's gonna happen, we're gonna have to get it done."