It was a disappointing end to what turned out to be a mediocre season for the Nevada football team.
A 13-point lead with less than two minutes left wasn't enough thanks to a couple of pass interference calls against Nevada and the inability to recover Arizona's on-side kick with less than 30 seconds left.
It was deja vu for the Pack, who blew a fourth-quarter lead and lost a 32-31 decision to South Florida in the second week of the season. Another disappointing loss came against 6-6 Air Force, 48-31 in the Pack's ninth game of the season. It was a season that certainly should have ended better than 7-6.
Some how, some way, Nevada has to find some players who can play defense. This has been an ongoing problem for the Pack. The offense has carried the team in recent years, and that lack of balance between offense and defense has continually hurt Nevada.
The only thing I question was Nevada's defensive strategy to play a prevent defense with a two-touchdown advantage. With a 13-point lead, I say play your normal defense. By dropping so many people into coverage, you give up the chance to put pressure on, and Arizona QB Matt Scott easily picked apart the porous Nevada defense.
Before you think I'm completely negative, kudos to Pack quarterback Cody Fajardo, who accounted for around 400 yards running and throwing in Saturday's season finale. He played a sensational game, and even though he was the victim of a cheap shot by two Arizona defenders, he came back and was effective. Quarterback is one position Nevada has no concerns about.
•••
Roger Goodell said at the recently concluded owners meeting that there is talk about expanding the playoffs to either 14 or 16 teams.
Why? Is the NFL now going to adopt the Little League mentality where everybody gets to play?
Letting 2 to 4 more teams in will dilute the post-season. It will mean letting 8-8 teams into the playoffs, which I'm not in favor of at the professional level. However, if you are going to have more teams in the playoffs, shorten the regular season by two weeks.
Personally, I think the product is fine the way it is right now. I know an occasional 10 or 11-win team is excluded, but that's very rare.
Roger, if it's not broken leave it alone.
•••
This has been a tough off-season for the Texas Rangers.
First they deal Michael Young away (after he waived his no-trade clause) and then they let Josh Hamilton get away to a club in the same division. He'll feel less pressure because of Mike Trout, Kendry Morales and Albert Pujols. I think Nolan Ryan will be sorry this year that he didn't open his pocketbook some more.
