Drunk Off Domination and Other Thoughts

The Fremont Cannon will stay blue and silver for another year!

OK, so it's Monday and you can't believe that we haven't written about the 49-27 thrashing of the webels this Saturday.

Well that's what happens when you are hung over from the joy of once again shellacking the dirty south in their own home. You just need to recover. You need to watch the replay from your DirecTv DVR and analyze things from a different perspective then the one you got sitting in the stands yelling yourself horse.

I for one thought this game would be a Wolf Pack victory, but I don't think I expected such domination.

It does feel good to be right once in awhile. Let's take a look at just what PWtW was right about this week:

1. We did a story on Brad Langley last week. Then he boomed a 77 yard punt that totally changed the field position at a critical time in the game. Still wondering why PWtW would waste an article on a punter?

2.

"We also think that it's time Kaepernick "goes off" on someone. He's had respectable games now against some major competition and it's time for the young QB to erupt on someone in the form of some serious statage".

Maybe we should go into the business of professional funds hedging now. Seriously....lead the NATION in rushing yards and rushing TD's this weekend. Had a 200+ QB rating and two TD's in the air. Earned WAC player of the week on offense. And became the first Wolf Pack QB EVER to run for over 200 yards. The teams been playing for over 100 years people! (Somewhere OBNUG bloggers were tasting a little vomit in their mouths when they read this stat-line).

3. Then we did an interview with The Mountain West Conference Connection and predicted a win. Check. Said we needed to get pressure on the QB. Check. Limit Summers to short gains. Check. Split the load up between Kaepernick and Taua. Check.


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Ok, so now here are some thoughts from the game and from watching the replay on TV. I'll try and touch on some things that maybe not all of the Wolf Pack fans noticed.

1. While watching the replay, I noticed two things that IMO are huge. The first was Dominic Green going wild with energy on the sidelines. So much so that my wife asked "what is he doing"? I looked at her and said, "he's pumping these guys up. He's being a captain!". About 20 minutes later, they show the sidelines again and there's Luke Lippincott in his jersey and jeans hugging Kaepernick, patting him on the back, and then having a chat with him. Again, another captain of this team being just that. Great to see the senior leaders showing these young guys the importance of this game.

2. The defensive front was solid all night. Funlv had a total of 54 yards rushing. Their previous low was the loss to Utah in which they ran for 130 yards. The secondary gave up 327 in the air and 3 scores. But on the bright side, they held Clayton to under 50% for the game, picked him off for the first time of the year, and on a couple of plays had great position and just "missed" on picking off a couple more passes. What I'm getting at is that this is a group that is very close to being one of the best defenses in the WAC.




3. After the game, students and fans rushed the field to celebrate with Wolf Pack players. After running around all night, we can only imagine the Kaepernick must have been gassed. Did he duck out to the locker room when this one was over? Hell no! Kaepernick, in the center of what must have been about 500 blue clad students, joined in as the group did their best impression of a House of Pain concert and jumped up and down in celebration of taking the cannon back to NEVADA for another year. It's these moments that this program needs to solidify life long silver and blue fans. Players and coaches getting fans involved and showing the love. Numerous players were looking up and smiling and waving at the Wolf Pack faithful in the stands during the fourth quarter. That type of appreciation of support makes the fans appreciate these kids and this staff just that much more.

4. Yes Kaepernick had 240 yards running. But the Pack had 444 yards on the ground. That means that between Vai, Courtney, and Lampford another 204 yards were chunked out. Say hello to 123 yards Vai Taua. And Randall's TD to put the Pack up by two scores mid way through the second was as big a TD run as this teams had this year. And BTW, Nevada is now THIRD IN THE NCAA in rushing. (Even after playing two top 7 ranked teams and without Lippincott and Fragger!) So what can we take away from all these numbers? I'll tell you what: THE UNION IS FRICKING DOMINATING!

5. Something that got talked about last year: Nevada scoring on plays of 25 yards or more. The Pack had 23 such plays which was good for second in the nation behind Oklahoma. This year the Pack has 8 such plays in 4 games. That would average out to one more big play than last year. Four of those plays came on Saturday as Chris Wellington hauled in a 70 yard pass, Virgil Green got open for a 40 yard TD, and Colin Kaepernick ran for 66 yard and 28 yard scores in the second half.

Ahhhhh. We'll enjoy this one for another day or so we think.

Next up for the Wolf Pack is the final leg of their three game road trip as the Pack travels to the Kibbie Dome to take on the Idaho Vandals. The final remaining good thing left in the Vandals season, the cheerleaders in their pirate uniforms, were recently kaboshed by their own fans. Now there is nothing left to be happy about in Idaho!