Don’t blame the defense

UNLV head coach Mike Sanford was quick to try to deflect attention from his defensive unit that allowed 620 total yards and 444 on the ground.

Without mentioning the defense specifically, he opened his press conference by saying the entire team shared the blame for UNLV’s fourth straight loss to its arch-rival.

“This is a team loss," he said. "This is on all of us in this thing together. It’s everybody in the football program’s loss. It’s not one side of the ball, it’s all of us. There is not going to be blaming of any particular area.”

Yeah, coach, but UNR rushed for 444 yards. At least some of the blame has to go on the defense, doesn’t it?

Clayton throws first pick

UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton threw his first interception of the season with just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

The ball was tipped and pulled in by UNR’s Mo Harvey.

Dating back to last season, Clayton had attempted 173 consecutive passes without an interception.

Sanford gives an honest answer

Mike Sanford’s displeasure with his team’s performance was obvious in the postgame press conference. He did have one somewhat light-hearted exchange with a reporter, however.

When asked if he expected so many points to be scored in the game, Sanford thought for just a moment before giving his answer: “I expected a lot of points to be scored, but not as many by them.”

Wolfe burns Pack

It wasn’t a bad game for everybody in a Rebel uniform. Ryan Wolfe caught eight passes for 167 yards and a touchdown.

“Ryan Wolfe played a great football game. I think his play is overshadowed by a very disappointing loss, but I think Ryan Wolfe is a great player and played very well,” Sanford said.

Clayton passed for 327 yards and three scores, but completed only 18 of 38 attempts. Clayton also led a rushing attack that never got going. He had 47 yards on 12 carries. Frank Summers was the only other UNLV player in positive yardage with 20 yards on just nine carries.

While the defense had all kinds of problems, one player stood out from the rest. Junior linebacker Jason Beauchamp had 21 total tackles, including 2.5 for loss. He also had a sack and recovered a fumble.

Celebration time for UNR

The UNR fans staged quite a celebration on the field after the victory. Several UNLV players were boxed in as jubilation ensued near midfield.

Among the “highlights” were a group of fans that laid on the ground to cover the “N” in UNLV to recreate its own logo.

Several police officers on horses stationed themselves near each goalpost to make sure they weren’t ripped down, but no fans ever approached the area.

Not a Chris Ault reference

A shirt was spotted on a UNLV fan at Sam Boyd Stadium that read “I put ketchup on my ketchup.”

At first glance, it was thought to be a reference to UNR coach Chris Ault’s (joking?) comments this week that he doesn’t put ketchup on anything because of his utter dislike of the color red.

Apparently, the shirt is unrelated to the comments.

It is simply a silly novelty t-shirt and a goofy Internet song.