Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 | 10:18 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.
I had to laugh Monday when I saw a quote from Cleveland Browns receiver Kevin Johnson, complaining about his team's season-opening 9-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks the day before.
"We never win the close ones," Johnson said, likely with a straight face and in all sincerity, although the word "never" seemed a bit inappropriate so early in the year.
An additional catch is that the current incarnation of the Browns has been in existence only two full seasons and that the franchise's overall record is a mere 5-28. The Browns, aside from losing, haven't established a pattern and surely haven't lost enough close games to warrant Johnson's lament, having dropped their 13 games last season by an average of 21 points.
Now, if Johnson played for the UNLV football team, then he would have something to cry about.
The Rebels are 0-2 and, without any question whatsoever, could easily be 2-0. Not only could be, but should be, as a matter of fact.
You know, every team in every sport plays a game or two that it can look back on later and feel it should have won. Yet, two games into the season, UNLV has already played two that clearly got away.
For comparison's sake, it's easy to say the Rebels got just what they deserved last season when they finished 8-5. The only loss in which they outgained their opponent was against Mississippi, and they were behind 23-7 at the half in that one before rallying prior to losing in overtime. A tougher one to take may have come against eventual Mountain West champion Colorado State, as UNLV had two extra points blocked -- including one in the final seconds -- and was beaten 20-19 (although CSU may have "deserved" the win in that it outgained the Rebels by 100 yards).
Colorado State is next up on the Rebels' current schedule, as the Rams will be at Sam Boyd Stadium Friday night. Yet retribution ranks well down on the list of UNLV's incentives.
Coming off 14-10 and 37-28 losses to Arkansas and Northwestern, respectively, the Rebels' foremost concern is simply finding a way to win. Perhaps opinions vary or might be altered after a few more games are played, but neither the Razorbacks nor the Wildcats were overly impressive.
Arkansas followed up its win over UNLV by playing a competitive game with Tennessee before losing, while Northwestern is ranked 16th and 19th in the leading polls and is considered a Big Ten favorite. So, it's no disgrace for the Rebels to be 0-2.
But consider the momentum, the frenzy and the bliss that would be apparent in Las Vegas if UNLV were undefeated.
Instead, the Rebels are looking for their first win and have disappointed their followers thus far. Fans and players alike would be justified in singing the "we never win the close ones" blues that Kevin Johnson was crooning in Cleveland.
Friday's game is going to be close, too, and those six points the Rebels are favored by seem precarious from this distance against a program that has won at least seven games a year the previous seven years.
It's no consolation that UNLV enters the game having already used its quota of close losses for the season.
It has to set aside the temptation to feel sorry for itself and get on with the challenge at hand.
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