Pack grades: Defense saves the day in streak-ending win

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack football team’s 6-0 victory over the San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday at San Diego at Snapdragon Stadium:

QUARTERBACK: C

Brendon Lewis was just 9-of-22 for 98 yards through the air and ran for 40 yards on 13 carries. But look past the uninspiring numbers when judging Lewis’ performance on Saturday. When he wasn’t getting sacked three times for 26 yards in losses, he was actually running the ball very effectively with 66 yards on 10 carries. He also didn’t turn the ball over, a crucial factor in a game when neither team could score a touchdown. The Wolf Pack offense with Lewis at the controls picked up 17 first downs and controlled the ball for just over 30 minutes. So, yes, his performance wasn’t as empty as his 41 percent completion rate and 98 yards on just nine completions might suggest. Lewis was 3-of-5 for 19 yards and also picked up 21 yards on three carries as he led the Pack on an impressive 13-play, 51-yard drive to open the game, eating up 6:30 and producing what turned out to be the game-winning field goal with seven minutes left in the first quarter. Lewis also ran the ball twice for 21 yards as the Pack went 46 yards in six plays in the final 50 seconds of the first half for another field goal. Lewis also directed another important drive in the fourth quarter. The drive didn’t produce any points (Brandon Talton missed a 48-yard field goal) but it did eat up six very valuable minutes with the Pack up 6-0.

RUNNING BACK: C

Sean Dollars ran the ball well, picking up 49 yards on 11 carries, all in the first half. His final carry of the game went for 10 yards to the Aztecs’ 19-yard line to set up Brandon Talton’s second field goal (37 yards) on the final play of the first half. Wide receiver Jamaal Bell also lined up in the backfield four times and added 28 yards. Jacques Badolato-Birdsell filled in for Dollars in the second half and contributed 30 yards on nine carries. So, the Pack held off the Aztecs with their third-string back (behind Dollars and Hayes, who missed his third consecutive game with a leg injury and might miss the rest of the season). The Wolf Pack rushed for 10 first downs, though Lewis was responsible for five of them. The Pack backfield, trying to operate for the first time in five years without Toa Taua and Devonte Lee, has been a hodgepodge mixture of runners, with nobody taking ownership of the role mainly because of injuries and Lewis stealing a dozen or so carries every game.

RECEIVERS: C

The Wolf Pack receivers, as has been the norm this year, played a supporting role in this one. John Jackson led the Pack with just three catches for 21 yards. Jackson doesn’t give the Pack much explosiveness (just 8.4 yards a catch this year) but he’s been a much-needed dependable target with 19 catches (second on the team). Tight end Cameron Zeidler, playing for an injured Keleki Latu, had his first two catches of the season for 16 yards. Zeidler is a redshirt freshman (two games, one catch last year) from North Valleys High, where he played quarterback. Jamaal Bell, who seems to get more carries in the backfield lately than passes thrown his way, had just one catch for three yards. He somehow still leads the team with 27 receptions for 250 yards this year despite catching just six passes for 41 yards over the last four games combined. Dalevon Campbell had a catch for 44 yards, the longest play from scrimmage by any player on Saturday. Campbell is the Pack’s lightning bolt that only shows up once or twice a game (13 catches in seven games, with an average gain of 19.2 yards). The fourth-quarter catch by Campbell was instrumental in changing field position with the Pack clinging to a six-point led. Campbell also had a 27-yard catch wiped out because of off-setting penalties on each team later on the same drive, a catch down to the San Diego State 3-yard line that likely would have put the game away.

OFFENSIVE LINE: C

The Wolf Pack offensive line had its typical rollercoaster game. Lewis was sacked three times and harassed about a half dozen other times he thought about throwing. Pack QBs have now been dropped 20 times this year. But the offensive line has quietly become a fairly efficient run-blocking unit. They opened up enough holes for the ground game to average 5.1 yards a carry (minus the 26 yards Lewis lost on his three sacks and the three yards the Pack lost on two plays while in victory formation at the end of the game). The Pack, though, still struggles mightily to finish off drives. Joey Capra, playing against his former San Diego State teammates, had a costly holding penalty in the fourth quarter. Zac Welch had a false start in the third quarter. Andrew Madrigal had an illegal snap in the second quarter. Two of the three sacks came in the second half, the most-costly on a 3rd-and-10 from the Aztec 28-yard line that forced a Wolf Pack punt late in the third quarter.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B

James Hansen led the front with three tackles. He stopped San Diego State quarterback Jalen Mayden for a 1-yard gain on the first play of the second half and combined with linebacker Marcel Walker-Burgess to trap Kenan Christon on a 2-yard gain. Mackavelli Malotumau had two tackles and the Wolf Pack’s lone sack (in the second quarter). He also helped linebacker Eli’jah Winston stop Christon after a short 2-yard run late in the first quarter. Thomas Witte teamed up with linebacker Adam Weynand to drop Mayden after a 2-yard gain in the first quarter and again after a 1-yard gain on 4th-and-2 play from the Pack 36-yard line in the second quarter. The play in the second quarter gave the Pack the ball with just 50 seconds left in the half, making Brandon Talton’s second field goal as the half expired even possible.

LINEBACKER: B

Jonathan Maldonado, a redshirt freshman with all of three career tackles, came up with the play of the game, recovering a fumble by Aztec quarterback Jaylen Mayden on the Pack 25-yard line with just 72 seconds to play. It was finally the gift from the football gods the Pack has been waiting for more than a year, as Mayden seemed to simply fumble the ball forward to Maldonado. Tongiaki Mateioalona was second on the team with eight tackles, making three stops on three consecutive plays late in the second quarter. Marcel Walker-Burgess was also a presence with seven tackles as was Drue Watts with five. Watts also broke up an Aztec pass. Jackson LaDuke had four tackles while Eli’jah Winston had two and knocked down a pass. Davion Blackwell had a quarterback hurry. San Diego State ran the ball 39 times (on just 53 plays) and had some success, averaging 4.0 yards a carry. But the Pack front seven seemed to have the Aztec running game (which was led by Mayden with 52 yards on 14 carries) under control the entire game.

SECONDARY: A

The beleaguered Wolf Pack secondary finally stepped up on Saturday. Yes, it was against one of the worst passing offenses in the conference that seemed, for some reason, afraid to attack the Pack (just 14 passes). But Mayden, a converted safety, completed just six of those passes for a mere 47 yards. Down six with eight minutes to play, the Aztecs ran the ball 10 times and attempted just two passes on a drive that resulted in Mayden fumbling the ball away. Just two Aztec passes resulted in a first down. The longest pass the Pack allowed was 19 yards. Just one other was for more than 10 (12 yards). No San Diego State receiver caught more than two passes and none found the end zone. Emany Johnson once again led the Pack in tackles with nine and now leads the team with 54 (38 solo). San Diego State’s 47 passing yards is the fewest the Pack has allowed in a game since (you guessed it) the triple-option Air Force Falcons threw for just 23 (one completion) late in the 2021 season. Before that it was Air Force again in 2017 with 41 yards. The last time a team not named Air Force passed for fewer than 47 yards on the Pack was New Mexico (another team running the triple option at the time), with zero yards on 0-for-2 passing). San Diego State didn’t have the triple option on which to blame its sad passing game on Saturday.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C

Brandon Talton was the extent of the Pack offense, with field goals of 39 and 37 yards in the first half. But Talton would later miss a pair of 48-yard attempts in the second half. Punter Matt Freem’s best effort was a 31-yarder that pinned San Diego State on its own 7-yard line in the fourth quarter. But that was the only time Freem helped the Pack as far as field position was concerned. He had a 20-yarder out of bounds at the Pack 49, a 40-yarder to the Pack 49, a 38-yarder to the Pack 48 and a 27-yarder to the San Diego State 48 out of bounds. He also had a 52-yarder to the Aztec 41 on which Adam Weynand made a nice play dropping Mekhi Shaw on a 1-yard return. Aedan Seiuli and Emany Johnson also stopped Shaw on a 4-yard punt return. The only Pack punt return was for three yards (Carlos Sandy) and the only kickoff return was for just 14 yards (Jamaal Bell). Marquese Allen-Patmon was called for holding twice on punt returns.

COACHING: A

Ken Wilson and his beaten, battered and bewildered staff actually seemed to outcoach the San Diego State Aztecs. The Pack was clearly more prepared (and excited and willing) to play a game on Saturday than the Aztecs. The Wolf Pack offense bookended the first half with two impressive drives and came away with two field goals. The Pack came out and controlled the ball for 13 plays and more than six minutes on its first drive and took a 3-0 lead. The Pack then ended the first half with a work of art, going 46 yards in just 50 seconds for another field goal. The Pack defense, a group that hasn’t stopped anyone in seemingly two years, completely dominated the Aztecs. Wilson’s team went to San Diego on Saturday with an embarrassing 16-game losing streak, punched the Aztecs in the mouth the entire game and the Aztecs, normally one of the more physical teams in the league, simply wilted and played scared. This Pack team rarely plays well for a ton of reasons, but it always clearly plays hard for Wilson and that’s all it took to finally get a win on Saturday.

OVERALL: A

This was, without question, one of the ugliest Wolf Pack victories in, well, maybe forever. It was a 1922 football game stuck in a stadium built in 2022. But it was also, without question, one of the most important Pack victories in, well, maybe forever. The 16-game losing streak is finally over and the Pack can come up for air. It took one of the strangest games since helmets went from leather to plastic but maybe that’s why to took so long (nearly 14 months). San Diego State, without a doubt, has serious issues. They built a new stadium on the once hallowed ground of Jack Murphy Stadium for that? This is a program that thought it could compete in the Pac-12? But don’t let reality spoil this Pack party. Go crazy Pack fans, go crazy. And there might be more coming soon with New Mexico and Hawaii coming to Mackay Stadium the next two weeks.