How Nevada Can Win: How To Watch, Odds, Prediction
On a 16 game losing streak, Nevada hits the road to face San Diego State on Saturday with plans to end the streak.
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Will Nevada Snap A 16 Game Losing Streak? Here Is How And A Prediction
WEEK 8: Nevada Wolf Pack (0-6) vs San Diego State (3-4)
WHEN: Saturday, October 21st – 6:00pm PT/5:00pm MT
TV: Fox Sports 2
RADIO: Nevada is on 105.7 KOZZ in Reno and San Diego State is on San Diego Sports 760 AM.
SERIES RECORD: San Diego State leads the all time series 9-6. The last meeting was in 2022 when San Diego State defeated Nevada 23-7.
WEBSITES: NevadaWolfPack.com, the official Nevada athletics website | goaztecs.com, the official San Diego State athletics website.
GAME NOTES: Nevada | San Diego State
ODDS: San Diego State (-13.5)
SP+ PROJECTION: San Diego State by 13.9
FEI PROJECTION: San Diego State by 10.6
The Nevada Wolf Pack return to action this Saturday as they face the San Diego State Aztecs.
The Wolf Pack are looking to snap their 16 game losing streak against an Aztecs team coming off a 41-34 win over Hawaii last week..
When we last saw Nevada, the Wolf Pack faced UNLV in Reno and suffered their worst defeat against the Rebels since 2004. The 45-27 loss to UNLV was once again, another defeat suffered by a Nevada football team that is in desperate need to snap the nation’s longest losing streak.
Can the Wolf Pack find some consistency on offense and on defense and get that elusive victory?
Here is how Nevada can defeat San Diego State on Saturday.
Avoid a slow start that ends up putting Nevada down early
The Wolf Pack defense has given up a touchdown to the opposition in five of the six games Nevada has played this season.
Here is another not so fun stat that displays Nevada’s slow starts this season: In those six opening drives by the opposition, the opposition has gained 458 yards and has scored 35 points. But wait, there is one more not fun stat to highlight Nevada’s slow starts, the Wolf Pack have only scored 13 points on its six opening drives.
Nevada must overcome their slow starts which puts them in a hole early. Nevada does not have the offensive explosion (or the coaching acumen) to get themselves back in the game consistently.
If Nevada is going to win on Saturday, the Wolf Pack will need to find a way to get on the scoreboard early and stop the opposition from getting off to a fast start.
Finding an identity on offense
We are 18 games into the Ken Wilson era in Nevada and we have come to one of the many problems with Wolf Pack football under Wilson: Nevada has no identity on offense.
At first, Coach Wilson and offensive coordinator Derek Sage wanted Nevada to be a run-oriented offense. Well, the Wolf Pack offensive line struggles with run blocking and they are averaging 3.49 rushing yards per attempt this season. When it comes to passing the ball, Nevada at times does connect on deep pass plays but struggles with the short/intermediate passing game (Nevada is only averaging 6.3 passing yards per attempt this season).
With six games left in this season, Wilson and Sage must try to cultivate an offensive identity and stay with that identity. It could be finding a way to get the running game going or finding a balanced passing attack (bringing in AJ Bianco in on a package of plays) to get the offense going.
If Nevada is going to snap this losing streak, the Wolf Pack must be able to find a consistent offensive identity.
Contain Jalen Mayden
The Aztecs key player on offense is QB Jalen Mayden
Mayden is a talented dual threat quarterback who is the engine that powers the Aztec offense. Mayden has thrown for 1,285 yards and six touchdowns this season. Mayden leads the team in rushing yards as well as he has rushed for 348 yards and three touchdowns.
The Aztec offense is ranked in the bottom three in the Mountain West this season as they are averaging 333.7 yards per game. Mayden is the reason why the Aztec offense isn’t completely in the toilet (like Nevada’s offense).
“The biggest thing is he’s hard to tackle”, Nevada HC Ken Wilson said of Mayden. Wilson went on to say about Mayden is that “ he’s got a strong lower body. You have to really wrap him up and get him on the ground”
Nevada’s defense will need to contain Mayden and keep him from using his legs to move the SDSU offense. Keeping Mayden in the pocket and forcing him into mistakes ( Mayden has thrown six interceptions to go along with his six TDs) will be helpful in Nevada securing the win.
Prediction
San Diego State 27 Nevada 12
San Diego State is not the vintage Aztec squads of the 2010s but they look much better than a Nevada team that has lost 16 straight games.
The Wolf Pack suffer from slow starts and do not have the consistency on offense and defense to overcome those setbacks. That is a coaching problem and Coach Wilson will continue to say the right things(“Its something we’re working on” Wilson said this week) but he can’t seem to get this team in a position to win.
Nevada plays a little bit better when the game is out of reach but they need to play well for four quarters. Again, that is a coaching problem and again, Coach Wilson seems out of his depths.
This game will not be pretty but the Aztecs and QB Jalen Mayden will do enough to win the game and extend the Wolf Pack losing streak to 17.
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