Jai’Den Thomas ran for 135 yards and a touchdown to lead No. 24 UNLV over host San Jose State 27-16 in a rain-soaked affair on Friday night.

UNLV’s Hajj-Malik Williams completed 11 of his 20 passes and threw for 131 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Ricky White III led the Rebels (9-2, 5-1 Mountain West) with seven receptions for 98 yards, while Kaleo Ballungay’s lone catch was a 5-yard touchdown.

Thomas rushed for a 25-yard touchdown run with 1:44 left in the third quarter, giving UNLV a 20-16 lead and putting the visitors ahead for good. Kylin James added insurance by running for a 7-yard touchdown with 8:29 left in the game.

San Jose State (6-5, 3-4) took a 16-10 lead into halftime after the Rebels stumbled through the first two quarters in the first half. The Spartans scored all of their points in the second quarter, 10 of which came directly from UNLV mishaps.

A bad read by Williams led to an interception that Isiah Revis returned 33 yards to give San Jose State a 7-3 lead with 13:26 remaining in the second quarter. The Rebels gave up their only offensive touchdown of the game soon after, a 33-yard completion from Walker Eget to Matthew Coleman that made the score 14-10.

Things continued to snowball for the rebels. On UNLV’s next possession, long snapper Ben Lisk sent the ball over punter Marshall Nichols’ head and out of the end zone for a safety that sent San Jose State to the locker room at halftime with a six-point lead.

As bad as UNLV played in the second quarter, San Jose State was as bad or worse the rest of the way. Caden Chittenden got things going for UNLV in the second half, allowing a Mountain West freshman to nail a 53-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 16-13.

The boost San Jose State got from its defense and special teams wasn’t enough to complement its offense. Eget completed just 4 of 22 passes for 81 yards, a far cry from the previous two weeks when he threw for 395 yards at Oregon State and 446 yards against Boise State. Eget had one TD pass and no interceptions on Friday.

San Jose State receiver Nick Nash was held to 9 yards on one catch. Nash entered the game as the national leader in receptions (95) and receiving yards per game (128.2).

UNLV outscored San Jose State 338-112 in net yardage and 207-31 on the ground.

–Field-level media