Nevada Has More on Ball

Nevada’s defense took the spotlight from its high-powered offense Thursday night as the Wolf Pack opened the college bowl season by beating Ball State, 18-15, in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The nation’s top-ranked offense sputtered, but Nevada (9-3) more than made up for it with a defensive effort that almost shut down the Cardinals to win the bowl for the first time in three attempts.

Ball State (8-4) managed to make it interesting at the end, though, scoring a touchdown on a 27-yard pass to Adrian Reese with 2:26 to play and adding a two-point conversion to cut the lead to three points.

The Cardinals then recovered the onside kick at their own 45 before Mike Crawford intercepted Brent Baldwin’s pass to seal the Nevada victory. The Wolf Pack had only to run out the clock to win its first bowl game since the 1947 Salad Bowl.

Crawford also had three sacks, leading a Nevada defense that had given up only a 62-yard touchdown run by LeAndre Moore in the second quarter in an otherwise dominant effort before a crowd of only 10,118 at UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium.

Nevada led, 9-0, after the first quarter and had its defense overcome a shaky offensive performance to win the fifth annual bowl that matches the champions of the Mid-American and Big West conferences.