Nevada Beats San José State 28-13 Behind a Receiver Who Also Threw a Touchdown
Marshaun Brown is listed as a wide receiver. He caught a 4-yard touchdown pass, threw a 32-yard touchdown pass (his only completion, on his only throw of the game) and finished as the top fantasy scorer in a 28-13 Nevada win over San José State.
The Wolf Pack never trailed and were never tied. Luke Duncan hit Brown for the first score in the opening quarter, and after a Trajan Sinatra field goal for San José State just before halftime it was 7-3. The next score was Duncan finding Trace Estes from 25 yards late in the third, making it 14-3. Then came the fourth quarter, where the scoring picked up all at once: Brown's pass to Herschel Turner (21-3), a Viliami Teu 11-yard run for San José State (21-10) and a Dominic Kelley 4-yard run 18 seconds later (28-10). Sinatra's 41-yard field goal with 3:24 left was the last of it.
The yardage gap was real. Nevada outgained San José State 332 to 204, ran 39 times for 122 yards against 30 for 65, and sacked San José State four times. The Spartans had no turnovers and the Wolf Pack had one interception, so the gap was not the giveaways.
Dominic Kelley carried 24 times for 82 yards and a touchdown, which is a lot of work for 3.4 yards a carry. Herschel Turner also ran eight times for 44 yards and caught Brown's touchdown pass. San José State's Viliami Teu ran 10 times for 44 yards and a score, and Carson Clark caught five for 42, but the Spartans had only 204 yards for the day and could not climb back once the fourth quarter opened up. It is a result that helps Nevada's record and not much else.
Nevada moves to 3-4, San José State to 4-4. If you started Brown, you are either very smart or very lucky. He had averaged 3.1 points over the previous three games, so this was a very large jump.