Rebels offense, defense struggle again in loss to Wisconsin

Heard about the new game in town?

It's called "52 Pickup", only instead of using a deck of cards, this one involves UNLV football players.

For the second straight week, the "Retreating" Rebels (0-3) allowed 52 points to an opponent, this time in a 52-7 loss to 14th-ranked Wisconsin (3-0) Saturday afternoon in Madison, Wis.

A week earlier, it was Air Force's option that flew threw the Rebel defense for 52 points in a 52-10 win at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Three games into the 1998 season, UNLV's veteran defense, expected to be a strength for Jeff Horton and company, has allowed 145 points. Going into Saturday's game at WAC preseason favorite Colorado State, the Rebels are yielding an average of 48.3 points and 478.3 yards per game.

A year ago, the Rebels allowed an average of 29.3 points and 381.6 yards. And with most of the key players returning from that group, even more improvement was expected from defensive coordinator's Ruffin McNeill's pressure 4-3 defense.

So what gives?

"We just have to learn to sustain our intensity for over 60 minutes," McNeill said.

"That was the disappointing thing about (the Wisconsin) game. I thought we were aggressive for the most part, but our goal is to be a consistent defense, to make plays, to play with intensity for 60 minutes, and we didn't do that."

Indeed, at times it seems as though the energetic McNeill is expending more energy signaling defensive alignments from the sidelines than the UNLV players exhibit on the field.

The Rebels have been particularly inept on third down, allowing opponents to convert an amazing 33 of 52 third-down attempts (65 percent).

The more teams convert on third down, the longer the drives. And the longer the drives, the less energy a defense is going to have as the game goes on.

Of course, the Rebel defense hasn't exactly been helped by UNLV's struggling offense. The Rebels ran just 49 plays (70 is about normal) compared to 81 for Wisconsin. And the only points Saturday at "Mad City" were thanks to defensive tackle Ted Darnell's 50-yard interception return just 2:28 into the contest.

McNeill is not one to sugarcoat his feelings, as anyone who has watched some of his intense practices can attest. So he didn't blink an eye when he was asked by a reporter after the Wisconsin loss if he could understand the disappointment from Rebel fans over his squad's at-times lethargic defensive effort.

"I think so," he said. "Our job is to stop people and right now we're not doing a very good job of it."

So where does McNeill go from here?

"Keep working," he said. "I can't wait until (Sunday). I can't wait to get back to watch film, make our corrections, practice hard, and put about 18 hours of hard work in. Maybe 16 hours a day isn't enough. Maybe we need 18 hours. Whatever it takes, we'll do it."

One thing is for certain. McNeill, the architect of a UNLV defense that jumped 40 spots in the NCAA rankings a year ago, won't go down without a fight.

"I'm not very smart," McNeill said. "We've just got to keep working hard, find out what our mistakes were, correct them, move on to the next game and work our butts off.

"Colorado State had a tough loss to Air Force and they'll be waiting for us in Fort Collins. So we don't have time to sit around here and hang our heads."

If they do, they might get them handed to them Saturday in Fort Collins. Again.

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