Grading the Pack: Commendable effort in loss

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 41-24 loss to the Utah State Aggies on Saturday in Logan, Utah . . .

QUARTERBACK: C

Well, it wasn’t exactly Colin Kaepernick at Boise State in 2007. It wasn’t even Tyler Stewart against Hawaii in 2013.

A.J. Bianco, though, performed as you would expect a red-shirt freshman would in his first college start. It was full of mistakes, inconsistencies, some wow moments and, well, mostly reminders that we were watching a red-shirt freshman in his first college start.

Bianco was just 13-of-25 for 161 yards, two touchdowns and one costly interception but also ran for 74 yards on 13 carries.

He is the fifth Nevada red-shirt freshman to start a game at quarterback beginning with Kaepernick in an unforgettable 69-67 overtime loss at Boise State in 2007. Kaepernick passed for 243 yards and three scores and ran for 177 yards and two more touchdowns.

After Kaepernick and before Bianco the red-shirt freshmen to start at quarterback were Cody Fajardo against UNLV in 2011 (93 yards passing 40 yards rushing), Stewart against Hawaii in 2013 (202 yards passing, three touchdowns and 29 yards rushing) and Carson Strong in 2019 against Purdue (205 yards, three scores plus 34 yards rushing).

Fajardo, Stewart and Strong all won while Bianco suffered the same fate as Kaepernick in defeat.

In Bianco’s defense, none of the other Pack red-shirt freshmen quarterbacks in their starting debut took control of a Nevada team that had lost 18 of its last 22 games.

Bianco started off well, completing his first four passes for 44 yards and a score. But he then went 4-for-14 with an interception for 69 yards from the second quarter through the middle of the fourth quarter as Utah State pulled away.

Bianco, though, did excel running the ball, picking up 74 yards on 13 runs.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Bianco seems to have a veteran’s feel for finding some open space in the defense. He’s also not shy about taking off, running for 137 yards on 28 carries over the last two games in basically a game and a half.

RUNNING BACK: B

Sean Dollars was a force, running for 82 yards on 18 carries and scoring on a 5-yard run midway through the fourth quarter.

The ex-Oregon back is clearly establishing himself as one of the more reliable backs in the Mountain West, gaining 252 yards and scoring four touchdowns on 64 carries (3.9 a carry) over his last four games.

Dollars gained 57 yards on 10 carries in the first half and 25 on eight carries in the second half. He got back to at least the line of scrimmage on all 18 of his carries.

Wide receiver Jamaal Bell had 26 yards on four carries, though 20 of those yards came on one play.

RECEIVERS: C

Dalevon Campbell just might be the Pack’s top playmaker on offense. The former Illinois wide receiver caught five passes for 74 yards and a 3-yard pass for a touchdown to close the scoring that saw him simply muscle his way into the end zone.

Campbell also had catches of 11, 19 and 38 yards and forced Utah State into a pass interference penalty. He is only third on the team with 24 catches this season but his 490 receiving yards is 214 more than second-place Spencer Curtis (276).

The Pack finally got Curtis more involved in the offense on Saturday. The ex-Oregon senior had three catches for 56 yards after hauling in three for just 33 yards over his last three games.

His 32-yard grab late in the fourth quarter is his longest since his 73-yarder against USC in the season opener.

Redshirt freshman Cameron Zeidler (North Valleys High) caught a 21-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7. Zeidler is the first northern Nevada high school product to score a touchdown for the Pack since Douglas High’s Reagan Roberson (also a tight end) scored on a 6-yard pass from Ty Gangi to beat Arkansas State 16-13 in overtime in the 2018 Arizona Bowl.

Utah State head coach Blake Anderson on Saturday was also Arkansas State’s head coach in 2018.

OFFENSIVE LINE: C

The offensive line paved the way for the Wolf Pack to pick up 183 yards on the ground on 42 carries (4.4 a carry).

Dollars and Bianco combined for 156 of those yards on 31 carries (5.0 a carry).

Bianco, though, was also sacked four times for 17 yards in losses and Utah State was credited with four quarterback hurries.

The game permanently turned for the worse when Bianco was almost buried by a Utah State blitz and panicked with a typical red-shirt freshman mistake by throwing the ball right to defensive tackle Seni Tuiaki.

Tuiaki returned the gift interception for a 63-yard touchdown and a 17-7 Pack deficit, a deficit the Pack never could overcome.

There were also numerous penalties on the offensive line. Andrew Madrigal had an illegal snap and a face mask penalty, Isaiah World and Josiah Timoteo each had a false start and World also had a face mask penalty.

DEFENSIVE LINE: C +

The Pack defensive line actually made its presence known and came up with impact plays. Thomas Witte trapped Utah State wide receiver Terrell Vaughn for a 1-yard loss after a catch.

James Hansen teamed with defensive back Emany Johnson to trap running back Robert Briggs for a 3-yard loss and also combined with DB K.K. Meier to hold Aggies quarterback Cooper Legas for no gain on a 3rd-and-4 play, forcing a Utah State field goal.

Hansen, who had three tackles (as did Sosefa Moeaki), also tipped a Legas pass that was intercepted by defensive back Bishop Turner. Mackavelli Malotumau also pressured Legas into throwing an interception (Emany Johnson) in the fourth quarter. Malotumau also had two quarterback hurries and Dion Washington had one. Jonathan Maldonado had three assisted tackles.

This might have been the defensive line’s most productive game of the year (certainly on the stat sheet).

LINEBACKER: C +

Marcel Walker-Burgess had his best game for the Pack with eight tackles and a sack. Drue Watts was also extremely active with seven tackles, including one for a 1-yard loss in the first quarter.

Both Walker-Burgess and Watts set personal season highs for tackles on Saturday.

Tongiaki Mateialona, Jackson LaDuke, Davion Blackwell, Adam Weynand, Eli’jah Winston, Stone Combs combined for 15 tackles.

But it must be noted that Utah State did run for a disturbing 292 yards on 44 carries (6.6 a carry). The defensive front and the linebackers have to take responsibility for nearly 300 rushing yards and a 6.6 average carry.

SECONDARY: C +

Richard Toney trapped Terrell Vaughn for a 3-yard loss on a 3rd-and-1 play from the Pack 47-yard line in the first quarter. Toney also had a team-high 12 tackles.

Emany Johnson, who had led the Pack in tackles for six consecutive weeks, had six tackles, an interception and knocked away two passes.

Bishop Turner also had an interception and three tackles. Caine Savage had four tackles.

Michael Coats Jr., K.K. Meier and Chad Brown each were credited for breaking up a pass.

Utah State’s Cooper Legas was 18-of-33 for 182 yards and three scores so he did find success against the Pack secondary. Broc Lane was wide open in the middle of the end zone from 4-yards out on Utah State’s first score and Micah Davis outraced the Pack secondary down the middle on a 47-yard scoring strike late in the first half.

But we’ve all seen the Pack secondary play a whole lot worse this year.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B +

Sandy Carlos had an eye-opening 53-yard punt return in the third quarter but, unfortunately, the Pack fumbled the ball away from the Utah State 37-yard line on the very next play.

Brandon Talton made his lone field goal attempt from 38-yards out in the second quarter. Jamaal Bell had punt returns of 31 and 27 yards.

Matt Freem averaged 41.9 yards on his nine punts. The nine punts equaled his season high this year (against Fresno State). Only one of Freem’s punts was for more than 50 yards (51 to the Utah State 8-yard line).

The Pack did attempt an on-side kick in the fourth quarter that was not successful.

COACHING: C

Ken Wilson made the correct decision by giving A.J. Bianco his first start. If you are not going to give a red-shirt freshman his first start when you are 2-7, well, when are you going to do it?

Bianco showed enough good things to warrant another start this week at Colorado State but Wilson is an over-the-top player-friendly coach and might want to give Brendon Lewis the start since he came to the Pack from the Colorado Buffaloes.

But there really is no reason to relegate Bianco to the bench for the final two games. It’s time to find out if he can take over this offense and make it his own.

The Pack played much better than the 41-24 final might indicate. Yes, the Pack was never in serious jeopardy of actually winning the game. Utah State, after all, was up 34-10 entering the fourth quarter.

But the Pack played with energy on both sides of the ball and also made plays on both sides of the ball.

The final two Pack scores weren’t all that meaningful on the scoreboard and were likely helped along by a Utah State defense that clearly dropped its intensity level.

But the coaching staff and the players kept working until the final tick of the clock and now the red-shirt freshman quarterback and the team as a whole has some momentum heading into the final two games of the season.

This was not a coaching loss by any means.

OVERALL: C

Utah State has a quality offense and was playing at home, two factors the Pack has yet to overcome in the Wilson era. So the odds (the Pack was a two-touchdown underdog against a 4-5 team) were against the Pack from the start.

This one could have gotten real ugly. Utah State scored on its first drive and returned the first Pack punt for a touchdown for an apparent 14-0 lead just six minutes into the game.

But the punt return score was nullified by a Utah State penalty (the undisciplined Aggies were called for 13 penalties) and the Pack settled in and stayed competitive until late in the third quarter.

Make no mistake. The Pack was supposed to lose this game. This wasn’t like losing to Hawaii at home.

This (a 2-8 record on the way to likely another 2-10 season) isn’t pretty. But what we saw on Saturday (a commendable effort on the road in a 17-point loss) is what we are reduced to as another forgettable season sleep-walks to a close.