The video was no better than the live performance.

“I think it’s as bad as it appears,” Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich said while reviewing video of Saturday’s 40-22 loss to Nevada at Aloha Stadium.

A dramedy of errors — dropped passes, mis-reads, missed tackles — led to the Rainbow Warriors’ first loss at home and in Mountain West play. At 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference, the Warriors still need a victory to ensure a winning regular season and accompanying berth in the Dec. 22 Hawaii Bowl.

“We’re not good enough to not play our best and win,” Rolovich said. “We’re not just some incredibly talented team. We’re a team that loves each other and plays together, plays hard for each other. We still gotta execute and do things the right way.”

Rolovich said the mistakes are “correctable stuff. It’s always correctable. We have to reach these kids in different ways, I guess. This starts with me. But it’s emphasizing even more tackling, more catching drills, even more, you know … I don’t want it to be like the sky’s falling. There are some consistent things we need to work on here.”

Late in the second quarter, it appeared the Warriors’ best defensive player, linebacker Jahlani Tavai, suffered a shoulder injury. He was escorted to the trainers’ room in the lower level at Aloha Stadium. Tavai was in street clothes on the sideline in the second half.

“We’ll know more the early part of the week,” Rolovich said of Tavai’s status.

But earlier in the season, it was feared Tavai would miss time because of another ailment. Tavai ended up not missing any games.

“He’s a tough, tough kid,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said.

An ensemble cast was needed to fill in for Tavai, who roams between rush end and inside linebacker. Pumba Williams, Penei Pavihi, Kana‘i Picanco and Paul Scott were Tavai’s replacements in the different defensive coverages.

“It’s the next man up,” Batoon said. “We’ve rotated guys at those positions in the past. It’s just another opportunity for somebody to step up and take the bull by the horn and let’s go.”

The Warriors entered Saturday’s game recovering only one of the 10 fumbles they forced. On Saturday, they recovered three Nevada fumbles. The Warriors also limited Nevada to 3.8 yards per third-down play. (The Wolf Pack committed two holding penalties on third down.) But the Warriors also missed numerous tackles in relinquishing 6.1 yards per rush.

“We are creating some opportunities for negative plays,” Batoon said. “In the run game, we’re winning at the point of attack. We’re not able to finish. (Nevada) had nice ballcarriers who did a nice job running the ball downhill and all that. It’s more about us. We have to get better at tackling in space and tight quarters.”

Batoon said tackling starts with the approach.

“Some parts of tackling have nothing to do with contact,” Batoon said. “It’s about taking angles and tracking and those type of things where we had some errors on (Saturday) night. And then it comes down to the physical finish of the tackle, which we need to continue to improve on. Some of that is just getting more (players) on the ball.”