Playing not to lose with second-half lead ensures UNLV does

Bobby Hauck stood in front of his UNLV football team at halftime on Saturday afternoon and offered this message:

Do not look at the scoreboard.

Do not look at the clock.

His players and offensive coaching staff responded this way:

They looked at the scoreboard.

They looked at the clock.

When you're not very good, which the Rebels still aren't, there is no more certain a recipe for losing a lead than hoping time runs out before the other guys catch up and move ahead.

Another season, another rivalry game against UNR, another victory for the Wolf Pack, another coat of blue paint for the Fremont Cannon. UNR has now won eight straight in the series, but its 42-37 win at Sam Boyd Stadium differed from recent blowouts.

This time, UNLV had every chance to win.

Until it began playing not to lose.

"Our attitude changed (after halftime)," Rebels quarterback Nick Sherry said. "We played conservative when we should have still been aggressive. We played more to keep the lead than keep going. When you're winning (big), you have to keep going. You can't let a good team hang around."

UNLV has never been better under Hauck than it was the first 30 minutes, when it ran 46 plays for 325 yards and led 31-14 at halftime.

The Rebels never managed 31 points in any of the seven previous losses to UNR. They were balanced, efficient, attacking, everything you would want as a head coach.

"We talked about it at halftime," Hauck said. "We said, 'We're not done scoring. We can't be. It's not enough.'"

This is why: The Rebels can't stop anyone, never mind a UNR side that entered averaging 40.8 points. UNLV has allowed an average of 35 against a schedule that has hardly been overly taxing, given five of the seven games have come at home.

The Rebels had as much chance holding the Wolf Pack to 14 points as UNR coach Chris Ault wearing a red shirt to his postgame news conference.

It didn't matter that UNR played backup quarterback Devin Combs over injured starter Cody Fajardo, because the Wolf Pack still reached their scoring average. It didn't matter UNR was the recipient of a horrible pass interference call that nullified a third-quarter interception for UNLV, which led by 10 at the time. It was a big play. It's not why UNLV lost.

The Rebels needed just one scoring drive of five or six minutes to end it, to make it nearly impossible for UNR to rally.

They couldn't get it. They couldn't generate much of anything offensively the final 30 minutes. Of five second-half series, the Rebels managed more than five plays once. They had the ball for just 8:53 of the half.

Eight minutes, 53 seconds.

That's awful.

Tim Cornett rushed 14 times for 108 yards and a score before halftime.

He carried only six times thereafter.

"You can't score points," Cornett said, "from the sideline."

UNLV is so suspect defensively, it needs to approach offense as if always trailing, no matter what the score reads. It's one thing to go conservative leading by 17 in the fourth quarter, but UNLV did so the entire second half until it was forced to throw downfield when trailing by 10 with under two minutes left.

In short, UNLV lost because it did what losing teams do with an opportunity to succeed. It got tight.

"It happens when that 17-point lead goes to 10 and then three," Hauck said. "I guarantee you these guys would give their left arms to have that (cannon) here. It's human nature for young guys to (get tight), a young team that hasn't been in this situation in this game before. The (rivalry) hasn't been close in a while. These guys desperately wanted to win this game, I promise you.

"I feel sick for our kids, especially our seniors, and our fans. I think we have closed the gap (on UNR), but obviously not enough to win. It's bitterly disappointing."

Ault is going to outcoach most peers who stand on the opposing sideline, but this was far more about Hauck and his staff's second-half offensive approach than any significant adjustments made by those in blue.

This one will sting for a while. The Rebels are 1-6 in a bottom-line business and now face consecutive road games against Boise State and San Diego State.

Hauck's mission: Don't lose a team that has, to this point, played its collective hearts out for him.

"Today epitomizes our season a little bit," Hauck said. "We have to finish games out."

Then you have to play to win them.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on "Gridlock," ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.