Here’s how Bulldogs have set table for two biggest games of season, and Tedford at 100

Nine games in, and No. 16 Fresno State is showing its versatility and its ingenuity, on offense with all of its pieces finally in place and on defense even with a key piece missing, and it’s just in time because after a 48-3 rout of UNLV the Bulldogs get into the meat of their Mountain West Conference schedule.

On Friday, at Boise State.

Eight days later, San Diego State.

In dispatching UNLV to win their seventh game in a row and the 100th in the career of coach Jeff Tedford, the Bulldogs gave the Broncos and Aztecs things to think about, particularly on offense where Marcus McMaryion continues to hit in the passing game at a school-record level and has a widening array of weapons.

The Bulldogs run game has been inconsistent all season and against the Rebels, the six running backs to carry the football accounted for only 110 yards on 22 plays and 47 of that came on three fourth-quarter runs by Saevion Johnson long after the outcome was decided. Take those three plays out and it’s 63 yards on 19 plays, just 3.3 per.

But Fresno State still churned out 192 rushing yards with McMaryion carrying the football seven times for 39 yards and wideout Derrion Grim carrying it twice for 24 yards including one touchdown. Those plays were about more than yards.

The seven rushes by McMaryion included three that produced a first down and 6 and 8 yards on first-and-10s, which kept them on schedule. The Bulldogs stayed in third-and-manageable often; they were 5 of 10 on third-down conversions and on eight of those 10 plays they needed 4 yards or less to move the sticks.

Grim on his two rushing plays had a 14-yard gain for a first down on a third-and-3 and a 10-yard touchdown on which tight end Jared Rice took out two UNLV defenders, driving one out of the play with his left hand and the other with his right hand.

McMaryion in the passing game moved the ball around as well as he had in any game this season, targeting leading receiver KeeSean Johnson eight times, the Bulldogs’ X receivers Jamire Jordan and Grim a total of nine times, slot receiver Michiah Quick six times and tight ends Jared Rice and Kyle Riddering a total of five times.

He threw touchdown passes to Jordan and Riddering.

While Quick was sidelined with a foot injury suffered in the second game of the season, the Bulldogs’ passing game started to lean toward Johnson and Rice.

They had 17 of 31 targets against Wyoming with five passes going to running backs, 19 of 38 targets against Hawaii with seven others to running backs.

The end result: the Bulldogs appear tougher to defend than they were a week ago.

Allison takes a break

On defense, Fresno State played most of the game without middle linebacker Jeff Allison, who is the Bulldogs’ leading tackler and tied for seventh in the Mountain West in averaging 9.3 tackles per game.

Allison got dinged on the Bulldogs’ first defensive series and was held out, mostly as a precaution, and with UNLV a little rough on offense and two big games coming up the next two weeks, why take a chance?

With the junior out, the Bulldogs moved George Helmuth to the Mike from Will, moved James Bailey to the Will from Sam and had sophomore safety Arron Mosby play his first extended reps as a Sam linebacker.

Helmuth was in on eight tackles, the most he has had in a game since the Bulldogs’ conference opener at Nevada when he had 11.

Bailey was in on seven tackles, the most he has had in a game since that victory at Nevada when he had 10.

Mosby had three tackles including two of the Bulldogs’ five tackles for loss.

UNLV is not exceptionally dynamic on offense, but even with Allison sidelined Fresno State still limited it to 302 yards, its second lowest total of the season.

The Rebels’ three points were their fewest in a game since a 37-3 loss to UCLA in the second week of the 2015 season, 44 games.

Tedford’s 100th

Not a bad place to be going into the toughest two games of the conference season, and to Tedford on the 100th victory of his career. He was 82-57 in 11 seasons at Cal. He is 18-5 in one-plus seasons at Fresno State.

“It’s nice, and really what that means is I’ve been really fortunate to be around a lot of really good coaching staffs and a lot of really good players,” Tedford said.

“I’ve played a small role in it, but everyone has played a huge role in it. It’s nice to have, and everyone who has ever coached on any staff that I’ve been on or played, they all have a piece of that.”

By the numbers

7.2 – Average points allowed by the Bulldogs in their first five Mountain West games.

62.34 – Passing efficiency rating for UNLV. That is the second lowest allowed by the Bulldogs defense this season. They held Wyoming to a rating of 61.96 in beating the Cowboys 27-3, and this season have allowed a rating of 93.50. Going into the weekend, the Bulldogs were ranked second in the nation and there were only five teams that had allowed opponents a rating of less than 100.00.

6 – Red zone touchdowns for the Bulldogs in seven trips inside the UNLV 20-yard line. Fresno State was only 2 of 6 in its victory over Hawaii in its last game. This season, the Bulldogs’ red zone touchdown percentage is 72.7. Last season, it was 54.7.

42.9 – Completion percentage by UNLV quarterbacks. It is the fifth time this season Fresno State has allowed an opponent to complete less than 50 percent of its passes.

121 – Rushing yards for UNLV running back Charles Williams, a Bullard High grad. Williams had five runs of 10 or more yards, the longest a 24-yard burst. The 121 yards was more than the six Fresno State running backs who carried the football combined. Saevion Johnson had 47 yards, Ronnie Rivers 33, Dejonte O’Neal 14, Josh Hokit 6 and Jordan Mims and Romello Harris each 5, adding up to 110.

1 – Explosive play of 20 or more yards by the Rebels, the run by Williams. UNLV’s longest pass play went for just 15 yards. Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion had six passes of 15 or more yards and the two longest went for 23 yards, one to KeeSean Johnson and one to Jared Rice.

1 – Turnover by the Bulldogs, an interception thrown by McMaryion, his first in 155 pass attempts. It snapped a streak of three games with no turnovers. Fresno State has not gone four games without a turnover since at least 2000.

11 – Tackles for Fresno State safety Juju Hughes, matching a career-high set last season in the Bulldogs’ 38-0 victory over New Mexico. Hughes against the Rebels had six solo tackles and also was credited with a pass breakup.

84.2 – McMaryion completed 16 of his last 19 passes against the Rebels, and 26 of 35 in the game (74.3 percent). The Bulldogs quarterback this season is completing 70.9 percent of his passes; the school record is 68.7, set by Derek Carr in 2013.

8.7 – Average yards per pass attempt this season for McMaryion. Over the past two seasons only two Fresno State quarterbacks have finished a season at 8.0 or higher – Derek Carr at 8.0 in 2012 and Ryan Colburn at 8.3 in 2009.

This story was originally published November 4, 2018 at 7:33 AM.