Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Three takeaways from UNLV victory, game notebook.
Revved-up ground game, defensive improvements key Rebel win
Three takeaways from the UNLV football team’s 52-24 victory over Texas-El Paso on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium:
UNLV took care of business.
This is what you do to inferior teams. You jump on them and don’t let them build any hope of pulling off an upset.
UNLV (1-1) took control late in the first quarter and entered halftime with a 38-10 advantage. It was only a matter of playing out the final 30 minutes from there.
“That first half was pretty good, clean football,” UNLV coach Tony Sanchez said.
Playing down to an opponent’s level has been a problem in recent seasons, and the Rebels certainly heard enough about that leading up to the game. Their 43-40 loss to Howard to open last season hung in the background.
Now, however, is not the time to relax. UNLV needs this kind of performance next Saturday when Prairie View A&M visits to ride the momentum into a tough test at Arkansas State on Sept. 22.
UNLV didn’t sit back at the end of the first half against UTEP (0-2) when the Rebels went 93 yards on seven plays to go up by 28 points with 22 seconds left.
“We have to keep going no matter who we’re playing,” said Rebels quarterback Armani Rogers, who passed for 119 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 103 yards and a TD. “We have to keep finishing drives, and we have to keep putting numbers on the board and not let up because you never know what can happen.”
The Rebels’ running game is only getting better.
If there is one thing Sanchez has established since moving across town from Bishop Gorman, it’s putting strong running games on the field.
And now he has his best at UNLV.
The Rebels rushed for 308 yards Sept. 1 at Southern California and 414 against the Miners, with Lexington Thomas gaining 127 yards.
The year before Sanchez took over, the Rebels averaged 129.2 yards rushing. Then in Sanchez’s first season in 2015, that number shot up to 193.2.
The past two seasons? UNLV averaged 241.5 and 240.2
UNLV’s defense made the necessary adjustments.
The first two drives looked way too familiar for longtime UNLV supporters, with UTEP scoring 10 points.
But the Rebels then cracked down, and by the time the Miners scored again, that only trimmed UNLV’s lead to 45-17 with 3:49 left in the third quarter.
“We didn’t tackle out there on the back end very well early on, but that got better as the game went on,” Sanchez said. “It’s one of those deals where, ‘Just settle down, settle down, we’re going to be all right.’ The offense was clicking, so a lot of those guys could get their wind and get back to playing good football.”
UTEP rushed for 278 yards, with quarterback Kai Locksley (119 yards) and running back Quardraiz Wadley (109) each breaking 100, but much of that damage came early or late when UNLV substituted liberally.