Grades: Lifeless Pack blows an open-book test vs. Hawaii

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 27-14 loss to the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors on Saturday at Mackay Stadium:

QUARTERBACK: F

The Wolf Pack set the art of throwing a football back about nine decades on Saturday. Starter Brendon Lewis and backup A.J. Bianco combined to complete just six passes in 24 attempts for 112 yards with one interception and six sacks.

The six completions are the fewest by the Wolf Pack in a game since Cody Fajardo completed five in a 49-27 win over UNLV in 2014 and Colin Kaepernick completed five in a 63-20 win over New Mexico State in 2009. The Pack had three 100-yard rushers in both those victories by Fajardo and Kaepernick and didn’t need to throw.

There was no such excuse on Saturday against Hawaii.

The Pack’s .250 completion percentage on Saturday is its lowest since at least 1999 (single-game records before then are not readily available) and maybe even before Chris Ault became head coach in 1976. Toss in the six sacks and something bad happened on 24 of the 30 times the Pack seriously wanted to throw.

Lewis started for the ninth game in a row and was 1-of-9 for 36 yards. His five drives ended in four punts and a lost fumble (by Lewis). Bianco ran for his life well enough on his nine drives, picking up 94 rushing yards on just nine scrambles.

But when the former Hawaii high school player did try to throw, it was painful to watch. He was 5-of-15 for 76 yards and was sacked six times for 31 yards in losses, slicing his official rushing total to 63 yards. His one interception, on a first-and-10 from his own 20, all but sealed Hawaii’s victory. Peter Manumu returned it to the Pack 5 and Hawaii scored two plays later for a 24-7 lead in the middle of the third quarter.

Pack quarterbacks have combined to complete just 25 passes the last three games combined for 341 yards.

Pack coaches George Philbrook, Brick Mitchell, Doug Dashiell and Jim Aiken, whose teams combined to score 30 or more points just twice over 81 games from 1930-39, would have been proud of those passing numbers in the 1930s.

Ken Wilson, whose teams have scored 30 or more points three times in his 21 games as head coach, needs to be extremely concerned.

RUNNING BACK: C

Sean Dollars returned after a one-game absence (concussion) and was productive, picking up 55 yards on 15 carries and scoring a pair of third-quarter touchdowns on runs of two and seven yards.

After gaining 24 yards on four first-quarter runs, though, Dollars had just four yards on his next six carries. He had two or fewer yards on nine of his 16 carries.

Jacques Bardolato-Birdsell, who had 36 yards on 15 carries with Dollars out a week ago against New Mexico, got just one carry (a 2-yard loss) the entire game against Hawaii.

Jamaal Bell, who lined up in the backfield against New Mexico and had 76 yards on 11 carries, got just four carries against Hawaii and went backwards three yards.

RECEIVERS: D

Dalevon Campbell, as usual, stood out. The Illinois transfer caught four of the Pack’s six completions for 88 of its 112 passing yards.

Campbell had catches of 36 yards from Lewis and 5, 33 and 14 from Bianco. The 33-yarder helped set up the Pack’s first touchdown.

The other receivers barely showed up on the stat sheet. John Jackson had a catch for three yards and tight end Cameron Zeidler, a North Valleys High grad, had a 21-yard grab. That was it.

Isaah Crocker had a silly false start on a 4th-and-goal play from the Hawaii 4-yard line.

There’s talent among the Pack wide receivers but these quarterbacks, combined with a spotty offensive line and unimaginative play calling, just can’t get them the ball consistently.

OFFENSIVE LINE: D

Six sacks allowed to a team that had just 12 over its first nine games. Let that sink in. And, oh yeah, the Pack attempted just 24 passes.

The Pack did run for 124 yards, but it took 41 carries and 63 of those yards were simply Bianco running around in the second half.

Dollars also makes this offensive line look good when it is humanly possible with his bruising never-stop-fighting running style.

Only one Pack drive was longer than six plays. Hawaii, in addition to its six sacks, was also credited with five quarterback hurries. The Pack offense had just 236 total yards and 14 first downs. It all starts (and usually ends) up front.

DEFENSIVE LINE: D

James Hansen started out on fire in the first quarter, sacking Hawaii quarterback Brayden Schager for a five-yard loss and stopping running back Dalen Morris on a 3rd-and-1 play for a yard loss. But that was the end of his statistics for the afternoon.

Sophomore Mackavelli Malotumau had four tackles and has showed promise in his four games this season. Dion Washington dumped Chuuky Hines for a yard loss after a catch in the second quarter for one of his two tackles. The defensive front did not pressure Schager once.

Sosefo Moeaki had two tackles, stopping Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei for two yards and Schager for three. Hawaii is one of the least productive running teams in the nation. But it had 138 yards and averaged 4.2 a carry when it wasn’t kneeling down at the end of the game.

We have yet to see this defensive front make plays that change games this year.

LINEBACKER: D

Drue Watts, a vastly undersized linebacker at 6-foot, 220 pounds, had six tackles, equaling his most in a game this season. Marcel Walker-Burgess had three tackles and a sack. Jackson LaDuke had three tackles.

This was the Pack linebackers’ chance to stand out against a team that struggles to run the ball. And it just didn’t happen. Hawaii was averaging 2.2 yards a carry on the ground entering the game and almost doubled that on Saturday.

Schager also had minus-120 yards rushing this season entering the game (his high was 18 yards) and he produced 49 yards on 11 runs against the Pack.

SECONDARY: C

The Pack secondary played reasonably well, considering Hawaii’s fondness for throwing the ball in the run-and-shoot/Air Raid mix that coach Timmy Chang is using.

Schager was just 21-of-38 for 203 yards and two touchdowns. You hold Hawaii to 203 yards passing, you should win easily. Just five of Schager’s completions were for more than 11 yards. A dozen were for eight yards or fewer.

Emany Johnson once again (for the seventh game in a row) led the team in tackles (eight). Richard Toney had five tackles while Caine Savage, K.K. Meier and Jaden Dedman each had four. Aedan Seiuli had three.

Savage broke up two passes, including one on third down in the third quarter. Meier also broke up two passes and Dedman did it once. As predicted, the performance of the Pack secondary has risen this year as the quality of the opposition’s quarterback has decreased.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C 

Brandon Talton kicked four field goals a week ago against New Mexico but didn’t get an attempt against Hawaii. That, of course, is not his fault.

Carlos Sandy spent most of his afternoon fair-catching Matthew Shipley punts. But he did have one return of 15 yards and one where he lost two yards. Aedan Seiuli had the play of the day on special teams when he recovered a fumble by Hawaii’s Steve McBride on a punt return.

Matt Freem averaged an impressive 46.7 yards on his seven punts. He had a 62-yarder to the Hawaii 21 that was spoiled somewhat by a 14-yard return by McBride. But he also had a 53-yarder to the 11 that wasn’t returned. Freem, though, had two punts that didn’t help the Pack much, a 41-yarder to the 40 and a 43-yarder that went into the end zone for a touchback.

The Pack also committed two false start penalties before two Freem punts.

COACHING: F

Ken Wilson and his staff are as inconsistent as their inexperienced players. Wilson followed up what is arguably his best coaching performance of his 21-game head coaching career against New Mexico (a 34-24 win the week earlier) with arguably his worst.

The Pack offense was dreadful against a dreadful defense. Wilson gave up on his starting quarterback (Lewis) before the first half had even ended. He gave Lewis five drives and nine to Bianco, a redshirt freshman backup playing against his hometown team for the first time in his college career.

When your quarterbacks are on their way to a 6-of-24 performance, why not order them to flip short passes to the running backs to build confidence? The running backs didn’t catch a pass the entire game for the first time this season.

Jamaal Bell, who somehow still leads the team this year with 29 catches despite catching just five passes over the last five games, didn’t have a reception.

What happened to getting him the ball as often as possible because he is, as Wilson says, one of the more versatile playmakers in the country?

Trailing 27-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Wilson went for a first down or touchdown twice (needing four and nine yards) on consecutive drives on fourth down, passing up field goals of roughly 28 and 44 yards, both well within Brandon Talton’s range.

Why not cut the lead to 10 and then seven with seven and three minutes to play? Why not give your team hope and something to feel good about at the end of a horrendous game? Maybe, just maybe, Hawaii wilts under the pressure of protecting a slim lead on the road.

Wilson, though, chose to put the game in the hands of Bianco, you know, as if he was Carson Strong in the Air Raid and making plays all afternoon long.

It didn’t come close to working.

The most disappointing thing about Saturday is that the Pack just didn’t seem ready to play. That hasn’t been a problem with Wilson’s team this year, but it was clearly an issue on Saturday.

You win two games in a row and suddenly you try to sleepwalk through a game? Is there a bowl game that requires just two victories?

Nevada was simply a 2-6 team that took a 2-7 team lightly and got what it deserved.

That’s Wilson’s fault.

OVERALL: F

This should have been a Pack party at home, a victory against a struggling Hawaii team that was just waiting for the season to end so they could jump into the transfer portal.

The Rainbow Warriors had lost 17 of their last 22 games over the last two seasons and 15 of their last 20 Mountain West games over the last three seasons heading into Saturday.

On Saturday they were on the road, where they had not won a game since the end of the 2021 season. New Mexico, for goodness’ sake, had just beaten Hawaii 42-21 in Albuquerque just two weeks earlier.

Hawaii came to Mackay, though, and hardly broke a sweat. They took a 17-0 lead by halftime and basically sat on it the entire second half.

The Pack offense, against one of the worst defenses in the nation, scored 14 points and had 236 total yards (the fourth-lowest production in Wilson’s two years) and 14 first downs (just 12 without the help of the officials). They also allowed a Hawaii defense, which had allowed 35 or more points in nine games this year, to stuff them 10 times behind the line of scrimmage.

The defense didn’t force a fumble (Hawaii’s lone fumble was on special teams) or intercept a pass. The Pack offense was desperately crying out for a game-changing play by its defense all afternoon that never came.

It was basically just a lifeless, flat performance against a bad football team at home. That’s how you lose to bad teams at home.