LAS VEGAS — Jake Pope did not have to spend much time searching for what went wrong with UNLV’s defense against Memphis. The Rebels forced five punts, created the game’s only lost turnover and held the Tigers to three conversions on 11 third downs, but too many of the plays that escaped the defense became large gains. “We let up some explosives,” Pope said. “That really is what it came down to, on the defensive side.” There were 13 of them. Memphis gained 275 yards on seven passes of at least 15 yards and six runs of at least 10 in its 27-21 win Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium. The Tigers finished with 418 yards on 60 plays. Their other 47 produced 143.
Dan Mullen came away feeling much the same way as Pope. UNLV got Memphis off the field often enough, kept the Tigers from finding much consistency for long stretches and held a halftime lead, but the mistakes it did make were expensive. “I thought overall we played pretty well,” Mullen said. “We obviously gave up a couple of explosive plays. That was really disappointing.” For much of the first half, those plays were not there. UNLV led 14-7 at halftime after forcing four punts and recovering a fumble over Memphis’ first seven possessions, while Marcus Stokes completed seven passes for 82 yards before the break.
Memphis found room quickly in the third quarter. Stokes found Stonka Burnside for 48 yards with 13:07 remaining, covering most of the ground on a five-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that tied the game at 14. PFF had Mumu Bin-Wahad allowing 59 yards in coverage Saturday, including the touchdown to Burnside. UNLV answered with one of its best offensive possessions of the night, going 85 yards in eight plays before Jackson Arnold found Kayden McGee for a 22-yard touchdown that restored a 21-14 lead.
The lead lasted 1:17. Jaylin Carter broke through the middle of UNLV’s defense and ran 36 yards for a touchdown on Memphis’ next possession, allowing the Tigers to cover 57 yards in three plays and tie the game again. Carter finished with 97 yards on 15 carries as Memphis ran for 195 yards on 34 attempts and averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Mullen brought up Carter’s touchdown when he was asked about the tackling afterward. He thought UNLV had tackled well for much of the night, but one missed tackle on Carter was enough to turn a routine running play into six points.
Memphis found the same type of yardage in the passing game. Stokes finished 15 of 26 for 223 yards and two touchdowns, an average of nearly 15 yards per completion. PFF had Denver Harris allowing 53 yards in coverage, including Jemyri Davis’ 32-yard catch early in the fourth quarter. Kamuela Ka’aihue allowed 32 yards, Dee Crayton 31, Quandarius Keyes 28 and Avery Helm 20. Davis’ catch came with Memphis leading 24-21 after the Tigers took over at their own 24. Carter gained six yards on first down before Stokes found Davis for 32 on the next play, moving Memphis to the UNLV 38. The Tigers eventually settled for a 36-yard field goal and a 27-21 lead.
UNLV got the ball three more times and never scored. Much of the attention late in the game shifted to an offensive line that allowed six second-half sacks, including four after center Austin Boyd left in the fourth quarter, but Memphis had already done enough offensively to make those final possessions matter. The defensive performance also came in the first game after coordinator Paul Guenther finally went through a complete offseason with his group.
Guenther arrived five practices into spring work last year after Zach Arnett left UNLV. The Rebels never completely settled during his first season, allowing 419.1 yards per game and 177.4 rushing yards. Air Force finished with 603 yards, Boise State had 558 and New Mexico scored 40 points in another difficult night, although UNLV also produced 30 sacks, 66 tackles for loss and 14 interceptions and played better late in the season than it had during a difficult middle stretch.
This offseason gave Guenther something he did not have the first time. He had spring practice, summer work and all of training camp with a group that already knew the terminology and most of the system instead of trying to install everything after spring work had already started. “If you looked at our tape from a year ago to tape now, there’s a huge improvement,” Guenther said during camp. “But we’ll see what happens when the ball is flying.” Saturday brought some of both.
There were signs of the improvement against Memphis. Harris stripped the ball late in the second quarter and recovered it himself, Pope finished with 13 tackles and UNLV got off the field on eight of Memphis’ 11 third downs. The Rebels forced enough punts to continue giving their offense opportunities, but the 13 explosive plays kept cutting into that work. Burnside gained 48 yards on one snap, Carter went 36 on another and Davis had the 32-yard catch in the fourth quarter. Memphis also completed passes of 21, 19, 16 and 15 yards and found several more double-digit runs.
Those plays now follow UNLV into Hawai‘i week, although the next offense presents the problem differently. Micah Alejado attempted 50 passes in Hawai‘i’s 37-27 loss at Stanford, completing 30 for 269 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Hawai‘i threw 52 passes as a team and had 12 players catch at least one, giving UNLV a much different passing game to prepare for after seeing Stokes and Memphis.
Alejado did most of his work underneath. According to PFF, he completed 19 of 24 passes thrown from zero to nine yards for 156 yards and a touchdown, including 13 of 16 short throws between the numbers for 118 yards and a score. Only four of his charted attempts traveled at least 20 yards, and Hawai‘i was comfortable continuing to take what Stanford gave it instead of waiting for receivers to get farther down the field.
Tama Uiliata caught eight passes for 62 yards and a touchdown, while Kainoa Carvalho had five for 72. DeVon Rice caught four passes for 25 yards and a touchdown, Blaze Kamoku added three receptions for 42 yards and eight other Hawai‘i players caught at least one pass. The Rainbow Warriors did not have much of a running game to take the ball out of Alejado’s hands, either. Rice carried 11 times for 35 yards, and Hawai‘i finished with 46 official rushing yards after sacks were included.
That approach became most noticeable in the fourth quarter. Hawai‘i entered the period trailing Stanford 23-7 before putting together touchdown drives of 80, 63 and 90 yards. The Rainbow Warriors covered 80 yards in 16 plays for the first score, 63 in five for another and 90 in nine for the third, eventually taking a 27-23 lead with 4:06 remaining. Stanford answered and eventually won by 10, but Hawai‘i had shown how quickly its passing game could settle in once Alejado started stringing completions together.
UNLV will not spend Saturday defending exactly the same throws that hurt it against Memphis. Alejado does not need to wait for a receiver to get 30 or 40 yards downfield because he is comfortable taking the short completion and coming back to it on the next series. That puts more work on Pope and UNLV’s linebackers and safeties to close downhill and make the first tackle before a five- or six-yard completion turns into the same type of explosive gain the Rebels spent Saturday trying to stop.
The Rebels should also have opportunities to affect Alejado before those throws develop. Hawai‘i’s offensive line allowed 12 pressures against Stanford, with Judah Kaio and Boogie Henderson allowing four apiece while Lipe Moala and Dean Briski allowed two each. Center Ethan Spencer went through 62 pass-blocking snaps without allowing a pressure, leaving most of Stanford’s success elsewhere along the line.
That gives Guenther several places to test a front he spent much of camp praising for its depth. Lucas Conti, Poe Purcell, Elias Rudolph and the rest of the rotation will have to get there quickly because Alejado showed against Stanford that he does not need to hold the football long enough for every rush to become a sack opportunity. Sending extra defenders can also leave openings in the same short areas between the numbers where Hawai‘i found much of its success, putting more of the responsibility on UNLV’s front four to win without help.
Pope was already thinking about the corrections before he left Allegiant Stadium. The Rebels had played too many good defensive snaps for the final numbers to look the way they did, but 13 plays were enough to change the night. “We gotta get to work on Monday and fix those things and make those tackles and not let up the long ball over our heads,” Pope said. “You know, just get better.”
Hawai‘i will ask UNLV to do it a different way. The throws may be shorter this week, but the Rebels still have to make the next offense earn every yard it gets.