Blog: Rebels come up short against New Mexico, fall to 2-7 this season

By Taylor Bern

Published Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 | 1:30 p.m.

Updated Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 | 5:54 p.m.

New Mexico 31, UNLV 28

Game over

Brian McIntyre's 55-yard field goal attempt fell a little too short for UNLV, and if you don't know who Brian McIntyre is don't feel bad. Neither do I.

With Nicolai Bornand on crutches, the Rebels went to an unknown kicker with one second left on the clock. His attempt fluttered underneath the crossbars and New Mexico held on for a 31-28 victory at Sam Boyd Stadium.

The kick was set up, in part, by New Mexico coach Bob Davie for some reason calling a timeout after the refs ruled there would be one second on the clock and it would start running when he marked it ready. That would have meant that UNLV probably couldn't have snapped the ball in time.

No matter, New Mexico holds on for a game it dominated, then got dominated in. Starting at the end of the first half the Rebels' offense started rolling but a key interception stymied the momentum and gave the Lobos just enough life to pull out the win.

The Rebels drop to 2-7 overall and 1-4 in Mountain West play. Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report on today's game and to read the basketball stories that distracted me from this game.

In seasons good and bad, this is a game the Rebels can generally count on. As I pointed out before, this is the only intraconference series the Rebels lead (11-10) and even when they lose it’s usually not too painful.

UNLV has lost to New Mexico by more than 10 points just once in the past 15 years, a far cry from how it generally fares against most teams. So this is as good an opportunity as the Rebels are going to get.

Yes, UNLV’s numbers against the run are atrocious, to the tune of 263.8 yards allowed per game. But the triple option is different. New Mexico’s going to get its yards, but when you don’t really have to worry about the pass, the final tally isn’t as big of a concern as normal.

Third-down defense will be a much more telling stat of how the day goes for the Rebels. It’s already something they’ve struggled with, and the importance ramps up today because they need to make sure they get a decent number of plays on offense.

If New Mexico gets rolling, its offense chews up a ton of clock. And unless UNLV's offense finds an offensive rhythm that has escaped it much of this year, the Rebels will need a lot of those possessions.

Bern’s prediction: I just don’t see UNLV losing this game today. A couple of interceptions could certainly derail that, but I predict a relatively clean Rebels performance. UNLV 33, New Mexico 20

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.