Nevada Leads All Game and Runs past UTEP 30-13
Nevada scored first and never gave the lead back. Nobody else got a turn in front, either: no lead changes, no ties, and a 30-13 final that looks closer than the game was.
Carter Jones threw a 21-yard touchdown to Dominic Kelley in the first quarter and Joe McFadden added three field goals (33, 26 and 45 yards), so Nevada was up 16-7 in the third. UTEP's only answer before the fourth was a 16-yard pass from Raymond Moore III to Jaden Smith in the second. Then Herschel Turner broke off a 72-yard run with 42 seconds left in the third to make it 23-7, and Kelley ran in from six yards in the fourth to make it 30-7. UTEP scored once more, on an 8-yard pass to Cash Cheeks with 1:07 left (the two-point try failed).
The ground game was the difference. Nevada ran 49 times for 279 yards and threw for 102, while UTEP ran 25 times for 79 yards and finished with 211 total yards to Nevada's 381. Nevada lost a fumble, UTEP gave the ball away zero times, and it did not matter. Nevada added three sacks to UTEP's two.
Nevada moves to 2-3 and UTEP drops to 1-5. UTEP's quarterback had the best day on his side: Moore ran 15 times for 65 yards and threw both of the team's touchdown passes, which is the first time he has thrown more than one this season. The Miners finished with 79 rushing yards as a team, and 65 of them were his. That is as close to a silver lining as this one gets.
For fantasy, two Nevada backs finished within two-tenths of a point of each other.