Jeff Choate’s Nevada football team entered the fourth quarter in familiar territory. This was against a reigning conference champion, and the goal was to end a game late. Last week, the Wolf Pack lost in this situation after SMU’s DJ Maryland torched the secondary. A statement victory came at the hands of the Wolf Pack. So, could Nevada shake off the emotional letdown and get the job done against a talented Troy team on Saturday? Well, thanks to a dominant rushing attack, some timely passing from Brendon Lewis, and a last-second two-point conversion stop, Nevada earned its first win of the Choate era in a 28-26 thriller over Troy.

Let’s take a look at how the Wolf Pack defeated the Trojans at Troy.

First half

It was a tale of two halves for the Wolf Pack. The first half began with Troy and Nevada trading three-and-outs on four straight drives. For a second, it looked like the game would be a defensive struggle until Troy strung together an 11-play, 84-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead over Nevada.

Nevada’s offense struggled to mount many long drives and establish the run game. A costly sequence cost Nevada the ball in Troy territory. QB Brendon Lewis was tackled just shy of a crucial fourth-and-1 attempt at the Troy 34-yard line. The missed opportunities continued after Nevada kicker Matthew Killam missed a 48-yard attempt in the middle of the second quarter.

Troy capitalized on the mistakes and drove down the field with RB Gerald Green running the ball in from 16 yards out. The score gave Troy a 14-0 lead at the end of the second period.

Momentum isn’t a quantifiable statistic, but it was definitely in Troy’s favor.

Last week, Nevada’s Ashton Hayes had a kick return snafu at the one-yard line. That snafu proved costly, as a safety ultimately led to the fourth quarter collapse against SMU. To address this, Nevada put the responsibility of kick returns in the hands of WR Marquis Ashley.

That decision proved wise, as Ashley provided a spark to Nevada’s offense, taking a Troy kickoff 43 yards to put Nevada in solid field position before the end of the first half.

That kickstart led to Nevada’s 8-play, 57-yard drive that ended with a Jace Henry touchdown catch from Brendon Lewis. Lewis surpassed his season total of two touchdown passes with that connection to Henry.

Nevada went into halftime trailing by eight points.

Second half

The first half of this game started with a crawl. The second started with a sprint. Nevada RB Savion Red took a 69-yard outside zone run to bring Nevada inside the Troy 10-yard line. Two plays later, Patrick Garwo III drove it in for his first touchdown in the Silver and Blue. A spectacular Jaden Smith two-point conversion would tie things up in the blink of an eye.

The second half would ultimately be defined by those three aforementioned players. Red led the team in rushing with 11 carries for 135 yards. Garwo III finished the game with two touchdowns and Smith had his best game with Nevada after catching six passes for 81 yards.

The Troy offense took advantage of Nevada’s poor tackling and mental lapses in the first half. In the second half, Nevada cleaned up the mistakes and forced timely stops. Nevada had two crucial third-and-goal stops at the end of this game. Both stops resulted in Troy settling for the field goal. The “bend don’t break” approach ultimately won the Wolf Pack the game in the final moments of the game.

Marcus Bellon is a nice player for Nevada. The Truckee boy scored his first touchdown for the Silver and Blue in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. It was a simple flat route for Bellon, but he quickly turned upfield and evaded a defender to dive for a touchdown that extended Nevada’s lead to 11.

For the second week in a row, Nevada led by 11 points at the end of the game. The question is, can Nevada close it out?

Troy would not go down without a fight. A late stop with just over two minutes left gave the Trojans the ball on their own 25-yard line. Troy took the ball nine plays and 75 yards down the field to pull within two with just 21 seconds left.

A thrilling two-point conversion saw both teams trade timeouts to get their plays on the same page. Nevada edge rusher Kaden Johnson came through with his biggest play of the night. The Wisconsin transfer jumped over a Troy blocker and forced a Goose Crowder fumble. Troy RB Damien Taylor quickly recovered, but was caught off guard by Nevada’s defense when his forward pass promptly went to the ground.

Nevada recovered the onside kick, but it wasn’t without controversy. Nevada WR Jaden Smith recovered and took a knee. Troy RB Damien Taylor was penalized for targeting after hitting Smith late. It caused some tension on the Nevada sideline, but cool heads remained and Nevada sent out the winning formation for the first time in the Jeff Choate era.

Quick takeaway meals

“Run the damn ball, man,” Choate remarked after Nevada’s 28-26 win over Troy. It was an old-school approach for the Wolf Pack. The team rushed for 214 yards on 34 attempts. Credit goes to the entire offense, including Nevada’s stable of talented running backs. The Union got some push off the line and sprung some explosive plays for Nevada.

Brendon Lewis had a solid game. He went 17-20 for 158 yards and two touchdowns. He made no mistakes and made plays when Nevada needed him on third down. A Jeff Choate offense is known as an offense that can run the ball first and create explosives down the field, and they did that tonight.

Next

Georgia Southern travels to Mackay to play Nevada. The Eagles scored 45 points in a loss to Boise State today, so Nevada’s coaching staff and players will quickly turn their attention to next week.