UNLV just happy to get win before off-week

There is never a bad time to stop the bleeding, never a wrong moment to apply a Band-Aid, never an inappropriate instant to believe in yourself.

UNLV’s football team was presented such an opportunity Friday night, a chance for the Rebels to end their four-game losing streak and enter their only off-week of the season on the sort of high that has been near impossible to discover this season.

It took them all of 60 minutes and an additional series of plays, but they finally embraced such a moment.

The Rebels beat Fresno State 30-27 in overtime when placekicker Nicolai Bornand made a 33-yard field goal after UNLV’s defense held the Bulldogs on downs.

Who would have thought: Fresno State, a year removed from winning the Mountain West championship game, proved to be the prototypical homecoming opponent.

I’m not sure there are two worse tackling teams in America than Fresno State and UNLV, which made for an entertaining game to develop over the second half, when the reality of this conference (it’s fairly inept at the top and awful at the bottom) came to light.

But the Rebels managed to do what they couldn’t over the past month: prove they’re better than someone.

Those who chose to record Game 1 of the American League Championship Series or skip high school football for a week — they announced 15,398 at Sam Boyd Stadium, but the real attendance wasn’t in the same zip code as that — were at least treated to a UNLV game that hadn’t been decided before the fourth quarter commenced.

Fresno State is an ideal example of what can happen to a nonmajor program from season to season, depending on which key players a team might lose. The Bulldogs were in the hunt for a Bowl Championship Series game last season behind quarterback Derek Carr and wide receiver Devante Adams.

They’re now in the NFL and Fresno State is dead-flat average.

Not even that at times.

UNLV is an example of a team that will accept anything good right now.

And any win is good.

The UNLV of the first half Friday can compete in the Mountain West most weeks, which is to say that when the Rebels have equal or better talent as an opponent, things don’t necessarily have to go wrong.

Seriously. There isn’t some conference doctrine stating UNLV must stink at football.

It didn’t at all over those first 30 minutes, when the Rebels dominated Fresno State in every area except foolish-fake-punt-calls-when-leading-big.

UNLV coach Bobby Hauck kills me sometimes. He’s the sort of guy you hope finds some success amid all the losing, but it’s as if he struggles to accept it when it happens. He over-thinks the room with the best of them.

You don’t run a fake punt from your opponent’s 47-yard line and leading 17-0 with just over five minutes left in a half against a team that couldn’t get out of its own way to that point.

You punt and continue to pin a bad team deep in its own territory. You embrace the big lead. You don’t do anything that might allow that bad team hope it could cut into the deficit and gain momentum before halftime.

Fortunately for Hauck — and you won’t read this sentence often — his defense saved him by stopping the Bulldogs on fourth-and-2 from the UNLV 24. In fact, a side that entered allowing a ridiculous average of 545 yards, surrendered just 140 over the half.

The play of quarterback Blake Decker over the half and down the stretch could also win the Rebels games. He completed 11 of his first 13 attempts and finished the half 14-of-17 for 159 yards and a score in the first half. He finished 29-of-40 for 332 yards and the one touchdown.

It has been a rough go for Decker, the junior-college transfer who has battled both injury and bad decisions over the first half of the season. He had before Friday fallen into a bad trap of forcing throws and trying too hard to make a play when things went wrong. He was a different player against Fresno State. A better player.

UNLV returns to play at Utah State on Oct. 25. The Rebels still have a game at Brigham Young and home matchups against the likes of UNR and Air Force mixed within their final six.

I’m not sure how many wins are out there.

The team from the first half of Friday’s game can earn a few and help UNLV avoid a disastrous record.

The good news: There is absolutely no chance UNLV loses this coming week.

Bye can’t tackle worth a lick, either.

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.