Nevada football: What will Pack's new schedule look like?

Duke Ritenhouse | Reno Gazette-Journal

Duke Ritenhouse, dritenhouse@rgj.com

SAN DIEGO — History was made by a team some had written off weeks ago.

Nevada stunned No. 24 San Diego State, 17-13, Saturday night at SDCCU Stadium for its first road win ever over a ranked team. The Wolf Pack also improved to 6-4 overall and became bowl-eligible.

The numbers for Nevada weren’t pretty — other than the 17 and the 13 on the scoreboard — but the Wolf Pack used a combination of timely plays and a strong defensive effort to upset the Aztecs. Nevada was held to 12 first downs and 226 total yards, but came through with big plays at two critical junctures.

First, after going into halftime with a 3-3 tie, the Wolf Pack put together its best drive of the game to open the second half. The 16-play, 75-yard drive, which took almost eight minutes of clock time, was capped by a 13-yard pass from Carson Strong to a wide-open Elijah Cooks over the middle. That 10-3 lead matched the biggest for either team in what was a defensive boxing match from beginning to end.

Jake Roth/USA TODAY

Later, Nevada went deep into the playbook for a 50-yard gain that set up a short touchdown run in the fourth quarter. On a first-down play, the ball went from Strong to Toa Taua, who pitched to Cooks in the backfield. Cooks pulled up and threw a strike to Brendan O’Leary-Orange, who got behind the SDSU secondary before being dragged down at the 5. Four plays later, Devonte Lee powered over from the 1 for the game’s final touchdown.

The Nevada defense, meanwhile came up with its second straight solid performance. The Pack held SDSU to a single third-quarter touchdown, limited quarterback Ryan Agnew to completing just over half his pass attempts, and came up with a big play of its own when cornerback Daniel Brown intercepted a second-quarter pass at the Nevada 1 to kill the Aztecs’ final first-half drive.

Duke Ritenhouse, dritenhouse@rgj.com

Pack performers

Strong hit 19 of his 26 pass attempts, good for 147 yards. A 30-yarder to Kaleb Fossum, who hurt his shoulder on the play, was his long pass of the night.

Ben Putman was Nevada’s leading receiver, finishing with four catches for 23 yards.

Punter Quinton Conaway averaged 44.2 yards on his five kicks.

Receiver Romeo Doubs also returned three punts for 47 yards.

Linebacker Gabriel Sewell and defensive lineman Sam Hammond each had nine tackles to lead the Wolf Pack defense. Defensive back Tyson Williams added eight.

It was over when …

The Nevada defense forced incompletions on third and fourth downs with San Diego State near midfield and the clock showing less than two minutes to play.

Quotable

“We knew we were going to play a tough team and we just talked about not flinching. Playing for four quarters, staying the course, never flinching — and our kids did that. It wasn’t perfect; we didn’t play clean at times, (but) we kept fighting and scratching offensively to make something happen.”

— Nevada head coach Jay Norvell

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Up next

Nevada will take its second bye week of the season before traveling to Fresno State (4-5, 2-3) on Nov. 23.