Hawaii offense struggling, and the Bulldogs have to make sure it stays that way

It didn’t show up on the stat sheet, but it did show up on film. Fresno State gave New Mexico a lot of opportunities to make plays down the field in the pass game.

A corner got beat deep up the sideline. A Lobos wideout was wide open on a post route — a play the Bulldogs were penalized for defensive holding. There was another post and another receiver running wide open …

The Lobos couldn’t take advantage, mostly due to some errant throws by quarterback Sheriron Jones, who hit on only 15 of his 32 passes against the Bulldogs and has competed only 56.2 percent of them this season.

Fresno State, a 38-7 winner at New Mexico, might have been in some trouble against a quarterback who hits at a higher percentage, and on Homecoming Saturday at Bulldog Stadium they will see Hawaii and Cole McDonald.

McDonald has hit 62.5 percent of his passes and is averaging 8.3 yards per attempt, ranking fourth and third in the Mountain West. He also has thrown 29 touchdown passes and only three interceptions.

That is with the Rainbow Warriors struggling the past two games, and that puts the spotlight on the Bulldogs’ defense from the game-planning to the execution on the field.

The Bulldogs, who have won five games in a row to get to 6-1 and 3-0 in the Mountain West, want the Hawaii of its past two games and not of its first seven.

Here’s how those passing numbers stack up:

And Hawaii’s rushing numbers:

Explosive plays:

Scoring:

McDonald sat out a 17-13 victory over Wyoming due to injury, but the past two games he has not been as efficient in the pass game or the run game.

He rushed for 96 yards in a victory at Colorado State, 43 in a victory over Rice, 56 in a win over Duquesne, but in the past two games has 24 rushing plays for 43 yards.

Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich was asked after a 40-22 loss to Nevada, its first at home and its first in conference play, this question: Is it, in your mind, one or two tweaks away from getting back on track?

“No, we haven’t been getting better,” Rolovich said. “We’ve been making a lot of the same mistakes and that’s something we need to address …

“We have to continually grow in coverage recognition and accuracy, running the ball, all that stuff. People are going to do different stuff to you throughout the season and you better be able to execute your base stuff and be good at it.”

Fresno State, obviously, can do a lot of different stuff with the experience it has in the back end with returning starters at the corners in Tank Kelly and Jaron Bryant and at the safeties in Juju Hughes and Mike Bell.

The Hawaii the Bulldogs will see on Saturday to some degree is up to them.

They go in knowing they need to execute better than they did at New Mexico, and that Hawaii could make those opportunities count where the Lobos could not.

“It’s very explosive, obviously,” coach Jeff Tedford said. “For those guys to be putting up the numbers that they’ve put up, they know what they’re doing. It seems like they’re on the same page, the quarterback is very accurate throwing the ball. The offensive line does a nice job of protecting him.

“They spread you out and it’s not only throwing the ball. They spread you out and they can run it up inside with a big back, so you can’t overly commit to the pass game 100 percent or they’ll hurt you in the run game. But the quarterback is very accurate. He’s also athletic where he can scramble and move and extend the play. The receivers are very good at what they do. They have the No. 1 receiver in the country (John Ursua) as far as yards and touchdowns. They’re very productive.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 1:53 PM.