Grades: Pack plays most complete game of Wilson era

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 34-24 victory over the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday at Mackay Stadium:

QUARTERBACK: B

Brendon Lewis and A.J. Bianco did what they were supposed to do.

The numbers, as usual, weren’t all that impressive. But Lewis and Bianco executed the offense (20 first downs), ate up the clock (35:27) and put points (27 by the offense) on the scoreboard.

Yes, they had to settle for four field goals, so it wasn’t perfect. But the Wolf Pack is in no position to thumb their noses at field goals right now.

Lewis played the first seven drives before leaving early in the second quarter with an ankle injury and a 24-3 lead. He was 8-of-16 for 92 yards through the air and scrambled for 64 yards on 11 carries.

Lewis had a 51-yard pass to Dalevon Campbell that set up a field goal and runs of 10 and 9 yards that set up another field goal. He wasn’t intercepted or sacked.

Bianco, who hadn’t played since Sept. 30 against Fresno State, was equally efficient and productive in just three drives (the fourth was a pair of kneel-downs in victory formation).

Bianco was just 2-of-3 through the air for 39 yards but one of those completions went for 28 yards to Campbell to set up another field goal. He also had another two passes to Campbell that resulted in a pair of pass interference penalties on New Mexico that led to a touchdown and a game-over 34-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.

At one point the Pack either scored a touchdown or a field goal on six of eight drives. That’s what happens when quarterbacks do their job efficiently.

RUNNING BACK: B

The Wolf Pack backfield was down to its third- (Jacques Badolato-Birdsell) and fourth-string running backs (Cross Patton) and a fill-in wide receiver (Jamaal Bell) because of injuries to Sean Dollars and Ashton Hayes.

The makeshift Pack backfield, though, turned in one of its most impressive performances on the ground of the season.

Bell slithered, cut, juked and danced his way to a game-high 76 yards, the most by a Pack running back since Toa Taua had 144 in his final college game in the season finale last year at UNLV.

Bell scored on a 9-yard run and also went 31 yards on another carry.

Badolato-Birdsell, the Pack’s battering ram, scored on a 2-yard run and also had a 15-yarder. Patton, getting his first carries since Sept. 23 against Texas State, had four mop-up runs in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

RECEIVERS: B

The Pack only completed 10 passes the entire game (just 19 over the last two games) and none went for a touchdown. But the receivers played an instrumental role in this victory just the same.

John Jackson led the Pack with four catches (32 yards) and has developed into a dependable target for quarterbacks looking for easy completions. Jackson had a 14-yard catch that paved the way for Brandon Talton’s second field goal and a 4-yarder that helped set up Jamaal Bell’s TD run.

Dalevon Campbell, though, is the Pack’s lightning bolt that can change games. He had just two catches, but they went for 79 yards. Campbell did about as much as any receiver in Pack history with just two catches.

The former Illinois wide receiver, arguably the most underrated receiver in the Mountain West, also was the target on a pair of throws that resulted in crucial pass interference calls on New Mexico. Those penalties led to a Pack touchdown.

Campbell also caught a 51-yarder from Lewis that set up Brandon Talton’s first field goal and a 28-yarder from Bianco that set up a Talton field goal early in the third quarter. Campbell now leads the Pack with 328 receiving yards despite catching just 15 passes all season (21.9 yards per catch).

Bell, the Pack’s leading receiver with 29 catches, had two catches for two yards. Now that he has become the Pack’s Deebo Samuel, running with the ball (20 carries, 110 yards) and running pass routes (29 catches, 252 yards), he’s become one of the most versatile offensive players in the conference.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A

How many offensive lines could produce 180 rushing yards on 48 carries with a backfield put together with string, masking tape, a glue stick and a few Hail Mary prayers thrown in for good measure?

Playing New Mexico surely helps. But the Pack offensive line did all that and allowed just one sack, to boot.

It wasn’t perfect. New Mexico was credited with two “official” quarterback hurries and had another half dozen or so undetected. And the Pack did have nine rushing attempts that went backwards. And we’re not including the sack and the three kneel-downs at the end of the game

But when a team holds the ball for more than 35 minutes while competing just 10 passes and also returning an interception for a score, well, the offensive line was earning its money.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B

This is a Pack front that rarely shows up on the stat sheet with such silly things as sacks, tackles, forced or recovered fumbles or even quarterback hurries. This is a front whose main goal, it seems, is just to act as a speed bump.

No Pack lineman, for example, had more than one tackle on Saturday. The grand total for the front was one tackle each by Dion Washington, Jonathan Maldonado, James Hansen and Thomas Witte. And the tackles by Hansen and Witte came on the same play.

But the front was solid just the same, acting as a speed bump. Washington got a quarterback hurry in the first quarter and stopped Lobos running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt for a 2-yard loss in the second quarter.

Witte and Hansen dropped quarterback Dylan Hopkins for no gain in the third quarter. Maldonado, who plays the Pack’s hybrid defensive end-linebacker role, also had a big interception and returned it 23 yards.

LINEBACKERS: C

Marcel Walker-Burgess had four tackles, stopping Andrew Henry for no gain in the first quarter. But he also was called for a personal foul later.

Drue Watts had three tackles. He hurried Hopkins in the third quarter and teamed with defensive back K.K. Meier to drop Caleb Medford for a 1-yard loss in the first quarter.

Watts also helped Bishop Turner bury Croskey-Merritt for a 2-yard loss after a catch in the second quarter.

Tongiaki Mateialona had his fewest tackles (three) of the year. Jackson LaDuke, Stone Combs and Elijah Winston each had two tackles.

SECONDARY: B

Emany Johnson led the team in tackles (10) for the sixth game in a row. Just three of the tackles, though, were after gains of less than seven yards. Johnson also had a forced fumble wiped out by a pass interference call on fellow defensive back Richard Toney.

Toney, though, had the highlight play of the game, returning an interception 43 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. The last time the Pack won a game at Mackay (38-14 over Texas State on Sept. 3, 2022), the Pack also returned an interception for a score (Bentlee Sanders, 34 yards).

It was the first career interception for Toney, a redshirt sophomore, who also had six tackles. He also had a sack two weeks ago against UNLV and is clearly a fixture in this secondary for the foreseeable future.

Michael Coats, a senior transfer from Louisiana Tech, also had an interception and returned it 42 yards. Caine Savage and Meier each had four tackles. Aedan Seiuli had three.

Jaden Dedman was called for two pass interference penalties on the same drive in the fourth quarter. New Mexico QB Dylan Hopkins did pass for 271 yards and a touchdown and had a dozen completions of 10 yards or more. He also had a 28-yarder wiped out by a Pack pass interference. Lobos’ backup quarterback Devon Dampier also had completions of 19 and 28 yards.

So, yes, the Pack concerns about this secondary didn’t go away forever last week against San Diego State when they allowed just six completions and 47 passing yards.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A

Brandon Talton kicked field goals from 34, 47, 52 and 22 yards out. Pack fans of a certain age likely never thought they’d ever see the day when the best Pack kicker was not named Zendejas (Tony or Marty). But that day has come, as Talton will likely own all of the Pack kicking records by the end of this season. The 52-yarder was his sixth of 50 yards or longer for his career.

The Pack special teams had its best day of the year.

Matt Freem averaged 42.4 yards on five punts, dropping three inside the 20-yard line. Freem planted a 35-yarder on the New Mexico 9-yard line, a 40-yarder on the Lobo’ 16 and a 42-yarder on the 7. Freem played a huge part in this victory, forcing an erratic New Mexico offense to cover a lot of ground to score points.

Carlos Sandy, a former teammate of Dalevon Campbell at Illinois, returned a punt 37 yards to the Lobos’ 32 on the final play of the third quarter to set up the Pack’s final touchdown. Sandy’s return is the longest of the season by a Pack player on a punt or kickoff.

The Pack kick and punt coverage teams, as they have been all year, were excellent, though the Lobos’ Duece Jones did return one kickoff 30 yards.

COACHING: A

Take Ken Wilson off the hot seat for the rest of the year, even if the Pack doesn’t win another game. Wilson and his staff controlled this game on offense, defense and special teams. This team has always played hard for Wilson, even throughout the 16-game losing streak, and now that effort is paying off in games the Pack should win.

That, of course, wasn’t always the case. See losses against Hawaii, Colorado State, UNLV and Incarnate Word last year and Texas State and Idaho this year.

A loss on Saturday would have been yet another step back for the Pack against a New Mexico program that has now lost 45 of its last 51 Mountain West games. But the Pack seemed prepared and confident from the opening kickoff. The win the week before at San Diego State, even if it was a ridiculous fluke, likely played a huge part in the Pack’s confidence on Saturday.

But there was nothing lucky or fluky about the victory over New Mexico. We’ve now seen enough to know this team is finally making definite strides in the right direction.

Don’t overlook the fact that the Pack used its backup quarterback and a makeshift backfield to nail down this victory. That’s how coaching takes the hand of its young team and leads the way to victory.

OVERALL: A

This was, without question, the best game the Wolf Pack has played in the Ken Wilson era.

Yes, we understand that New Mexico had more yards (400-311), first downs (22-20) and more offensive touchdowns (3-2). But the eye test tells us the Pack dominated this game, jumping out to a 24-0 halftime lead and playing smart football in the second half with a big lead.

The closest New Mexico came the final 44 minutes of the game was with under a minute to play on a garbage touchdown that made the final margin just 10.

The Pack controlled this game in the areas that are the most important: on the scoreboard and on the game clock (holding the ball for over 35 minutes) and in ball security, forcing three turnovers and not losing the ball once. That’s how you beat bad teams. You don’t give the game away.

Yes, of course, strange things happened. Strange things always happen in Nevada games. The Wolf Pack, after all, had almost as many yards off Lobo passes (108 on three interception returns) as it did on 10 catches from Pack quarterbacks (131). They actually had more points (seven) on Lobo passes than they did on Pack passes.

The leading Pack rusher (Bell) was a skinny wide receiver. The second-leading rusher (Lewis) was a quarterback who played half the game.

The Pack beat San Diego State on two field goals last week and this week beat the Lobos thanks mainly to four field goals and a touchdown on an interception return.

How sustainable is this? That’s not important right now. We’ll likely see another weird win this Saturday against Hawaii.

This is the foundation for success (beating teams you are supposed to beat, taking advantage of each game’s unique opportunities, no matter how weird, and playing mistake-free football) that Wilson has told us he was trying to build all along.