A miss and a hit on fourth-and-1, and Fresno State has 5 in a row with victory at UNLV

Fresno State is bowl eligible after a 37-30 victory at UNLV on Friday, which was no certainty five weeks ago. But the Bulldogs have now won five games in a row, and are another step closer to a West Division title in the Mountain West and a spot in the conference championship game.

They got there with quarterback Jake Haener throwing for 313 yards and three touchdowns and Jalen Moreno-Cropper frying the UNLV secondary for 164 yards and two of those scores. That is not much of a stunner, though this might be: Fresno State did not punt in a game for the first time since 2008 and has now scored on 17 of its past 19 series that did not end with the end of a half or a game.

But this win really turned on the other side of the football, on an adjustment by defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle and some resilient play by a unit that was on the field for more than 20 minutes in the first half, playing long, drawn-out drives of 10 plays, 15 plays and 14 plays.

And the game also turned on one huge play coming right after one huge opportunity that got away and burned the Bulldogs badly.

With Fresno State up 27-19 in the fourth quarter, UNLV put its game on a fourth-and-1 at its own 34-yard line and running back Aiden Robbins blasted 66 yards through the middle of the Bulldogs defense for a touchdown.

All of a sudden, with a 2-point conversion pass, the score was tied.

And, after Haener and Moreno-Cropper teamed up on a 65-yard touchdown to put Fresno State back out front, the Rebels were right back there. It was fourth-and-1, again. They were at the UNLV 34, again. The Rebels went for it, risking a turnover on downs on their side of the field, again.

But this time, nickel Morice Norris and safety Evan Williams came crashing off the right side and took down Robbins for a 1-yard loss.

They had no doubt they were going to make the play. Both were blitzing off the edge; it was just a question of who would get the inside line and the shortest distance to the ball carrier.

They actually talked about it, right there on the field, lining up.

“I asked him, ‘Do you want to be inside or do you want me to?’” Williams said. “He asked me, ‘Do you want it?’ and I said ‘Nah, I trust you. Go make that play.’ He came inside and I came outside of him. We both crashed hard and it was a blur. We made the play and it felt great.”

They both got there, got a piece, and Robbins was finished off by tackle Johnny Hudson Jr. The stop allowed the Bulldogs to add a field goal and go up two scores with less than three minutes to play.

It was game over.

Bullldogs’ critical defensive adjustment

“The first fourth down, we just broke,” Williams said. “I didn’t even see him from the backside. I thought he was going to be coming out slow from the hole and nobody touched him. He came out clean. Just for the guys to see something like that and roll with the punches and say, that doesn’t matter anymore, just throw it behind you, it’s a big testament to the resilience of our team, just being able to come out on the second fourth down.”

The game-changer came earlier, in the second quarter.

UNLV (4-6, 2-4) had opened the game with great success on the ground, pounding out 104 yards in the first quarter at 6.5 yards per play. It became more of a challenge when defensive tackles Leonard Payne and Hudson collided on a second quarter play chasing UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield, leaving both on the ground injured.

Hudson was able to return, and was in on a career-high six tackles. But Payne was not, testing the Bulldogs’ depth along a line where at one point this season they played three true freshmen due to injuries.

But they got big snaps from Matt Lawson and Devo Bridges inside and were able to turn that Rebels’ run game.

“I thought coach Coyle and the defensive staff did a nice job of moving the defensive line a little bit more and stopping the run, except for the long one on fourth-and-1,” coach Jeff Tedford said. “That hurt. But for the most part I thought we handled the run in the second half pretty well.”

UNLV and its fading run game

UNLV had 27 rushing yards in the second quarter, 13 in the third. Fresno State had the Rebels scuffling in the fourth until that 66-yard run by Robbins, but UNLV still finished with just 75 yards in the final quarter.

“Our coaches came in at halftime and they were fired up about it, because we weren’t playing to our best version of ourselves,” Bridges said. “They were pissed off about it because we know we’re better than that.”

The Bulldogs had issues with Brumfield in the run game — he had 60 yards and one touchdown on 10 rushing plays.

But the outcome could have been much different.

When UNLV was running the ball, the Bulldogs were not running much offense at all. In the first half they ran 22 plays to the Rebels’ 42, and one way to slow Haener and that offense is to keep them off the football field.

The worst starting field position they had led to the fastest score they had, 79 yards in three plays and 37 seconds on the long pass play to Moreno-Cropper.

“I just think you have to stay with it,” Haener said. “Stay positive, stay patient. I think the same goes with the course of a football game. When the shots are there you’re going to take them and take advantage of them. When they’re playing coverage, playing zone, you have to be able to run the ball and be able to take the underneath shots and then when the big balls are there, go get them.”

By the numbers

0: Punts by Fresno State, the first time it did not punt in a game since a 32-29 loss to Hawaii in 2008. The Bulldogs rather than punt had six turnovers in that game, three interceptions and three lost fumbles.

1: Sack allowed by the Bulldogs offensive line.

50: Fresno State conversion percentage on third downs: 6 of 12. The Bulldogs had converted 60% or higher three games in a row.

40: Average starting field position on the Bulldogs’ 10 offensive series.

17: Career 300-yard games for Haener in 25 games.

9: Touchdown passes by Haener against the Rebels in three career games. He had the three Friday, five last season and one in 2020.

9.5: Sacks this season for Bulldogs defensive end David Perales, who had 1.0 against the Rebels. That is the most by a Bulldog in a season since outside linebacker Ejiro Ederaine had 10.0 in 2013.

3: Red zone field goals by Fresno State, which now has 15 on the season. That is the most in the Mountain West going into games on Saturday and tied for the most in the nation with Georgia.

10: Bulldogs who caught at least one pass from Haener.

2.6: Yards per rush by the Bulldogs, the fifth time this season they have been held to less than 3.0 yards per play.

This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 6:56 AM.