RENO - Nevada has now found the fine line allowing it to become a competitive football team. But the Wolf Pack still must find a way to cross that line to become a winning team.
The difference between a 49-30 San Jose State win and a much closer game or even a Nevada victory Saturday at Mackay Stadium wasn't that much. It was actually just a few critical plays. But those plays, which included five offsides penalties, a delay of game penalty and a personal foul made the difference.
Nevada Coach Chris Tormey, though, wouldn't use his team's youth as an excuse.
"There were a lot of critical plays," Tormey said. "There's just no excuse for that even if you're in junior high.
"I thought we competed a lot harder this week than last week," added Tormey, whose team was coming off a 58-21 loss at Fresno State. "To me, there's not much difference between the two teams out there. Now we need to learn how to play with poise in critical situations."
A critical situation came early in the fourth quarter when Nevada had begun to mount a drive behind the running of Marquis Starks, who finished with 148 yards on 31 carries.
But a personal foul placed Nevada in a hole and a nice punt return for San Jose State gave it a short field to work with. Then one of Nevada's five offsides penalties on third down kept the drive alive and Deonce Whitaker's second touchdown run from three yards gave the Spartans a 28-16 lead.
"That's the first time that's happened to us," Tormey said about the costly mistakes.
Nevada (1-6, 0-3 in the Western Athletic Conference) came right back when David Neill found Nate Burleson on a 31-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 28-23.
But Whitaker broke off a 67-yard run and Jamar Julien scored on a 4-yard run to give San Jose State (5-3, 3-1) a 35-23 lead and effectively put the game away. Until Whitaker broke off his big run, Nevada had held him relatively in check. Whitaker finished with 166 yards on 21 carries.
Another key moment came in the second quarter with Nevada trailing 15-9. The Wolf Pack had a crucial delay of game penalty inside the 10-yard line and after a high snap, Mike Phillips' 21-yard field goal attempt was blocked. After a 16-play drive, Nevada came away empty. Phillips also missed a 41-yard field goal earlier in the first half.
"We moved the ball all day long," Tormey said. "I thought we came ready to play. We did some real good things the first three quarters of the game."
Nevada's defense set the tone early when Bert Schenone sacked San Jose State quarterback Marcus Arroyo deep in Spartan territory. A high snap on the ensuing punt attempt was recovered in the end zone by the Spartans for a Nevada safety.
Nevada took a 9-0 lead when Schenone caused Whitaker to fumble. Humphrey Garrett scooped up the ball and returned it 26 yards for the score.
Nevada took a 16-15 lead in the third quarter when Neill connected with Burleson on a 24-yard scoring strike.
"I thought we came out hard and proved ourselves," Burleson said. "We made an improvement from last week. We just defined Nevada's offense where it used to be."
But Burleson also acknowledged the mistakes that cost Nevada a chance at the win.
"We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times," he said. "They capitalized on our mistakes."