Pack grades: Lifeless Nevada barely shows up in Boise State beatdown

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 41-3 loss to the Boise State Broncos on Saturday at Mackay Stadium:

QUARTERBACK: D 

Shane Illingworth completed his first and last three passes of the first half for 90 combined yards. The rest of the game — his other 24 passes that found just seven receivers for 33 total yards — was an accident waiting to happen. Illingworth completed just 13-of-30 passes overall for 123 yards and no touchdowns. But he wasn’t intercepted and did leave the game, we assume, with all his extremities fully attached. So it was a moral victory of sorts. But it also might have been the most meaningless 123 yards and 13 completions through the air of this meaningless season. Those 123 yards were good for just five first downs through the air (all in the first half) and just five of the 13 completions ended up on Boise’s side of the field. Illingworth was also sacked four times and harassed, it seemed, about two dozen other times.

The highlight of Illingworth’s night was on the Wolf Pack’s second play of the game on offense, a 37-yard completion to Carlton Brown. The other time Illingworth flirted with some sort of execution came late in the second quarter when he connected with Dalevon Campbell for 29 yards, B.J. Casteel for 11 and Devonte Lee for seven to set up Brandon Talton’s 26-yard field goal on the final play of the half. But that was likely at a time when Boise simply wanted to get back in the locker room and warm up. Illingworth simply turned back the clock on Saturday to a frightening time in the Pack-Broncos rivalry. Jeff Rowe and Zack Threadgill combined to complete 15-of-32 passes for just 125 yards in 2002 while Andy Heiser and Travis Moore combined to go 13-of-36 for 127 yards in 2003. The Pack lost those games by 37 (2002) and 53 (2003) points. That’s where the Pack offense was Saturday night, about 20 years in the past.

RUNNING BACKS: C 

Toa Taua did finish with 103 yards on 16 carries. But 63 of those yards came late in the third quarter and throughout the fourth quarter with the Pack down by four touchdowns or more and Boise’s starters on the bench. Taua did have a 13-yard run with the Pack trailing just 7-0 in the first quarter. But that was it for meaningful runs by the Pack senior. A pair of 8-yard Taua runs on back-to-back plays with less than a minute to play in the first half with the Pack down by three scores also helped pump up his final stats. Devonte Lee returned to the field for the first time since Oct. 15 at Hawaii and had 21 yards on seven carries. He also caught three passes for seven yards. Lee, though, also fumbled the ball away on his best run of the game, an 11-yard gain early in the third quarter. Wesley Kommer ran the ball four times for 15 yards but he, too, fumbled the ball away once.

RECEIVERS: D 

Take away a 37-yard catch by Carlton Brown on the Pack’s second play of the game and a 29-yarder by Dalevon Campbell late in the second quarter with the Pack down 21-0 and, well, it was hard to notice the Pack receivers. Those big gains by Brown and Campbell were their only catches of the night. B.J. Casteel led the Pack with five catches, but they were for only 31 yards and he needed 12 targets to do it. Two of Casteel’s catches were for first downs while Brown, Campbell and Spencer Curtis each picked up one first down.

OFFENSIVE LINE: D + 

Boise State sacked Illingworth four times and officially hurried him three times. The Pack run game also averaged just 3.3 yards a carry and that was with Taua piling up meaningless yards in the fourth quarter. Isaiah World was called for one false start and a 40-yard field goal by Talton in the first quarter was blocked. The Wolf Pack’s struggles on offense this year are for a myriad of reasons. Quarterbacks starting for the first time in their careers, receivers who can’t seem to get open consistently and make plays when they do and lifeless, unimaginative play calling from an inexperienced staff are all high on that list. But it all starts with the offensive line.

DEFENSIVE LINE: D

Dom Peterson played hard in his final Boise State game with five tackles, all of which made an impact. He teamed with defensive back Jaden Dedman to trap Boise running back George Holani for a 1-yard loss and also had three other tackles that netted Boise a total of three yards combined. James Hansen stopped Holani for a 1-yard gain. But that was about it. No other Pack defensive lineman had more than two tackles or got near the quarterback. Boise State basically did what it wanted to do all night on offense when its starters were on the field.

LINEBACKERS: D + 

Drue Watts, as usual, made plays with eight tackles. He teamed with Dom Peterson to stop Ashton Jeanty for a 2-yard gain. Maurice Wilmer had a pair of tackles and Davion Blackwell hurried the quarterback once. Elijah Winston was called off-side on one Boise State incompletion in the second quarter and the Broncos scored on the very next play on a 49-yard run by Holani.

Douglas High graduate Chris Smalley had his most active game of the season with four tackles and even recovered a fumble. But most of his numbers came in the fourth quarter against Boise subs. Boise running backs George Holani, Tyler Crowe and Ashton Jeanty combined for 33 carries for 266 yards for an average of 8.1 a carry. Quarterback Taylen Green also ran twice for 22 yards and another score.

SECONDARY: D  

Boise State quarterback Taylen Green completed just 11-of-22 passes but each one seemed to be a dagger in the heart of the Pack secondary. Nine of Green’s 11 completions went for 12 or more yards and 10 went for a first down. Four went for 30 or more. Green’s 11 completions were good for 218 yards and he only played three quarters. Backup quarterback Maddux Madsen also came on to complete a pass for 35 yards in the fourth quarter. The Pack secondary has struggled after the first two games of the season. The secondary had six interceptions after the first two weeks and has just three over the last eight weeks and opponents are throwing the ball deep at will.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C - 

Kicker Brandon Talton returned to the field for the first time since Sept. 17 at Iowa. He kicked a 26-yard field goal to end the first half against Boise State but his 40-yarder on the Pack’s first offensive drive was blocked. It was just the third field goal attempt blocked in Talton’s four-year career. Matt Freem punted for the first time since Oct. 7 against Colorado State and seemed a bit rusty. Or cold. Freem did get off a 65-yarder on his first punt, but his other four punts averaged just 36.3 yards. One of his punts was a 36-yarder that went out of bounds at the Boise 44-yard line and another was a 35-yarder to the Boise 46 that was returned 25 yards. Another punt was for just 34 yards to the Boise 38. Bentlee Sanders did have a 37-yard kickoff return. Dion Washington also recovered a Boise fumble on a Bronco field goal attempt. Boise also botched another field goal attempt. The Pack special teams have rarely helped this year.

COACHING: D 

Nobody expected the Wolf Pack to beat Boise State this year. But the performance on Saturday was disturbing just the same. The Pack simply didn’t put up a fight. The Pack never sniffed the end zone on offense and Boise State’s starters scored at will on offense. The Wolf Pack had two weeks to prepare for this highly anticipated game and came out lifeless and defenseless in one of its two biggest rivalry games of the year at home (Colorado State and Boise State). Memories of the early 2000s, when Boise State used to pound the Pack at Mackay, came flooding back. Yes, it was cold. And, yes, the field was slick. But Boise State didn’t seem to have many problems. Nothing the Pack did on offense, defense or special teams seem to even slow up the Broncos. This is the second time the Wolf Pack had the good fortune to have a bye week before an important home game (Colorado State and Boise State) and each time the impact of the coaching staff was invisible.

OVERALL: D - 

Boise State handed the Wolf Pack a demoralizing 38-point loss at home that could have been 58 points if the Broncos didn’t simply lose interest late in the third quarter. The Broncos called off the dogs (likely because Boise State head coach Andy Avalos used to coach with Pack coach Ken Wilson at Oregon) with more than a quarter to play. The only time you do that in a rivalry game is when the other team changes its uniforms at halftime to something resembling a white towel. The Wolf Pack simply did nothing well from start to finish. Last week, a 35-28 loss at San Jose State, was a moral victory for the Pack. The Boise State game was total Pack carnage. Boise State had more first downs (25-13), more yards (528-250), only punted once, had more extra points (five) than Pack total points (three) and basically took over the stadium.

The crowd of 14,960 was the lowest for a Boise State game at Mackay Stadium since 1985 when 13,460 showed up in a 15,000-seat Mackay to watch a 37-10 Pack win. An average crowd of 22,517 even showed up for three Pack bloodbaths in 2002, 2004 and 2006 when Boise was at its best and the Pack was a punching bag. The Pack, by the way, lost those three games by 37, 37 and 31 points, all closer than what happened Saturday. There have been a lot of rock bottom moments during this trying Wolf Pack season. Saturday showed us once again that there really is no firm bottom to this Pack season.