DENTON, Texas — They actually stood up and performed early in this mess of a game. They actually made some plays to keep things respectable (very) early on.
But it wasn’t meant to be for UNLV’s football team or its defensive players, who followed a fairly strong start with a forgettable second half.
The Rebels fell at North Texas 44-6 on Saturday, and it’s not as if the team’s offense did its counterparts any favors.
We’re talking four turnovers — three fumbles and an interception.
The offense did nothing.
Things fell totally apart over the final 30 minutes.
“We came out fired up defensively and playing well and then played terrible in the second half,” UNLV coach Dan Mullen said. “Our offense never got anything going. We have a lot to fix as a team.”
North Texas would total 444 yards and be balanced enough to gain 261 through the air and 183 on the ground.
It averaged nearly 7 yards per play.
Its quarterback, who UNLV knew was a dangerous player coming in, didn’t disappoint those at DATCU Stadium.
Tayven Jackson played his part, throwing for 233 yards and two scores while rushing for a touchdown.
A good team
“(Mullen) said the little things add up, and they did,” UNLV linebacker Cam Santee said. “Once the second half began, they were able to build their lead pretty fast, and we weren’t able to create any big plays on our end.
“They’re a good team that played really well. At the end of the day, we need to be better and they played more as a team. We started well in the beginning as a defense but have to continue that through the entire game.”
It didn’t help the defense’s cause that North Texas began its first three possessions inside UNLV territory. It didn’t help that the Rebels’ offense couldn’t move the ball a lick.
Santee and his teammates will now enter the team’s first bye week of the season.
It’s a traditional question to ask following such a defeat: Would the Rebels prefer the time off or get right back at it and play next week?
“I always want to go play again and redeem ourselves,” Santee said. “This is going to be a pivotal moment in our season during this week. We really need to come together as a team and look at ourselves and decide what we want to make of this season.
“We can really focus up this week, so when we get to Akron (on Sept. 26) we’re flying on all cylinders, all phases of the game.
“Things just snowballed for us here. We can always have a better attention to detail. We just can’t come out flat like that in the second half.”
The game was (unofficially) over when North Texas took the second-half kickoff and went 75 yards in six plays for a score that would make it 27-3.
All of a sudden, a UNLV defense that did its best to hold up in the first half was missing tackles and not able to contain much of anything. It just got worse.
All the way around.
And it’s not as of the offense did its part.
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
