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March 29, 2024

Rebels Football:

Blog: Quarterback injury the biggest concern for Rebels in 37-3 loss

BoydUNLV

L.E. Baskow

Devonte Boyd is off to the races in a catch-and-run in UNLV’s home opener against UCLA.

Updated Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 | 11:17 p.m.

UCLA 37, UNLV 3

Game over

UNLV lost its starting quarterback in the first quarter and had little chance in the game after that despite keeping the score relatively close into halftime. Rebels senior quarterback Blake Decker suffered a non-contact hamstring injury at the end of the first half and UCLA was able to continually build its lead before getting out with a 37-3 victory that was a shutout before UNLV's meaningless field goal in the final minutes.

UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen wasn't overly impressive tonight at Sam Boyd Stadium but he didn't have to be either. Rosen took a lot of deep shots down the field and finished at 22-of-42 for 223 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Bruins workhorse was running back Paul Perkins, who averaged more than eight yards per carry while registering 151 yards and two touchdowns. UCLA also got a score from its defense when UNLV backup quarterback Kurt Palandech flipped the ball away and it was returned for a touchdown.

Palandech finished 4-of-15 for four yards with an interception and two fumbles, one of them lost. Decker was 2-for-6 before leaving the game and UNLV ended up with 237 offensive yards.

Decker's health is the most important thing to come out of this game. UNLV was always likely going to lose and there were plenty of positives from the defense, but it's clear that without Decker UNLV has very limited options between Palandech, freshman Dalton Sneed (who they want to redshirt) and walk-on Christian Lopez from Green Valley High.

Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from tonight's game.

During warmups it’s UCLA and not UNLV wearing black, and based solely on the size of the Bruins’ offensive lineman it’s understandable how this line settled in an UCLA minus-32.

Most of the Mountain West took last week off against Division I-AA opponents — Wyoming even managed to lose while doing it — and this week it was mostly a showcase for the league against Big 5 teams. UNLV vs. No. 13 UCLA at 7:35 p.m. on CBS Sports Network is the nightcap, and so far it’s been a rough day for the league.

Fresno State got crushed 73-21 at No. 17 Ole Miss and Hawaii didn’t score a point in a 38-0 loss at No. 1 Ohio State. Those were expected, but I thought San Diego State would put up a better fight in its 35-7 loss at Cal and Colorado State blew the game after leading most of the way in a 23-20 overtime loss to Minnesota.

As I write this UNR is down double digits to No. 22 Arizona, and if that holds it would be up to UNLV to fend off the sleep. Since that’s not likely it’s probably better off to go in hoping for/expecting a similar effort as last week in Northern Illinois.

Once the adjustments were made NIU started to pull away but even then UNLV was able to hang in and keep it close. Keeping today’s game close would be huge, but a more realistic goal is scoring first (which UNLV is really good at) and then keeping things within a couple of touchdowns going into the break.

UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen could very well be the real deal, so it’s entirely possible that this thing gets out of hand quickly. Avoiding that is goal No. 1 for the Rebels, because only if the secondary plays like the first half last season will UNLV have a chance to keep things a little interesting.

Bern’s prediction: I hope I’m wrong, because it would be a more entertaining game with UNLV keeping it close. That’s not the way I’m going though. UCLA 52, UNLV 17

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