It was the drive that would not end.
Nevada drained the life out of Hawaii and the Aloha Stadium crowd with a nine-minute, 30-second drive spanning the third and fourth quarters, eventually resulting in a 20-yard field goal in the Wolf Pack’s 26-18 win over the Rainbow Warriors on homecoming Saturday night.
The 85-yard drive was by far the longest allowed by the UH defense this season in both time of possession and number of plays (19).
That soul-sucking sequence skewed the time of possession in the second half to 24:26 to 5:34 in Nevada’s favor, hamstringing the comeback hopes of the Rainbow Warriors (2-6, 1-2 Mountain West).
"They came to play and we didn’t come to play," UH defensive line coach Lewis Powell said. "We missed tackles, they made tackles. They kept their offense on the field, and our offense was on the sideline. Basically whoever does that wins the game."
Nineteen tied the most plays in a drive by Pack offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich’s pistol offense this season.
Running back James Butler rushed eight times on the drive. Dual threat quarterback Cody Fajardo took it four times himself, including a brutal play in which he eluded not one, not two, but three different would-be UH playmakers in the backfield before turning the left edge and going 10 yards to the UH 23 for a first down.
"We gotta make plays. … We just gotta make plays," senior linebacker Tevita Lataimua said of that play with a shake of his head.
Three other times on the drive, Nevada converted on third down.
"It was long," Lataimua said. "We should have stopped them on a couple third downs. But (our) coaches called the right plays and we just gotta execute, get off sooner."
Brent Zuzo’s chip shot to cap it off put the Pack up by two possessions at 19-10 with 7:35 to play in the game.
Linebacker Simon Poti shrugged off the notion that the defense was totally worn down at that point.
"I mean, shoot, that’s why we push it in the summer and stuff," Poti said. "I wouldn’t say we were tired. We just had to correct all our mental mistakes."
Poti said the Pack were "grinding us up a little bit" on the outside.
The multiple letdowns were magnified by how well the defense performed in the first half, just one score and 153 yards allowed. UH nearly took a shutout into the locker room before Fajardo broke through for a 6-yard score with 52 seconds left in the second quarter.
That was the longest the Warriors lasted into a game before an opponent got on the scoreboard this season.
"We were showing some different things in the first half, came back in the second half and thought we put some pressure on (Fajardo), and he made some plays and we missed some tackles," Powell said. "Just going back to fundamentals and technique, that we should have down by Week 7."
Senior safety Taz Stevenson finished with a game-high 12 tackles, while Poti added 10.
