The University of Hawaii football team was in the midst of a comeback so rousing Saturday night that it appeared that even the cardboard fan cutouts were gyrating.
OK, maybe it was the wind gusts that stirred them in the Aloha Stadium seats while the suddenly energized Rainbow Warriors sideline whooped it up in front of them.
But for all except the waning moments of the fourth quarter, the Rainbow Warriors looked ready to finally topple their long-time tormentor, Boise State. Right up until the Broncos managed to withstand a barrage of 15 unanswered points in the tense finish of an eventual 40-32 victory.
The rally begged these questions: Why can’t the Warriors mount this kind of a flurry earlier? Why are they perpetually late to seizing the initiative and when are they going to come from ahead for a change?
There was hope that what had been the tale of the first half of this truncated season had changed Saturday night when UH jumped out to a milestone 3-0 start in the first quarter, their only opening lead in five games.
But, alas, the offense went punt-punt-punt, the defense got dinged for some big plays and the special teams whiffed on a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Before you knew it, the Warriors were staring at a 33-9 deficit in the third quarter that, as it turned out, not even the brilliance of Calvin Turner’s three touchdowns and a pair of 2-point conversions could overcome.
It was an all-too-familiar situation reminiscent of how they trailed 10-0 at Wyoming, 20-7 against New
Mexico and 28-0 to San Diego State.
Only against the Lobos, a team that has won none of its four games so far, did the Warriors finally prevail,
39-33.
If this keeps up this week against unbeaten Nevada
(5-0), it could be a recipe for a long night and assure something less than a winning season.
At 2-3 with three games remaining — pandemic permitting, of course — the Warriors are running out of time to put things together. It figures to be a challenging handful the next two weeks with the Wolf Pack and 4-0 San Jose State before the Warriors get the prospect of a soft landing with Nevada-Las Vegas (0-4) to close out the season.
Nevada, in particular, is not an adversary that you want to spot a lead — early or otherwise. The Wolf Pack are off to their best start in a decade and come packing a quick-strike ability with an offense that ranks fourth (363.8) in passing yards
per game and is putting up
32.2 points per game.
Wide receiver Romeo Doubs leads the nation in receiving yards per game (155.6) and is sixth in receiving touchdowns (nine) and receptions per game (7.2) as Nevada has two other receivers, Cole Turner and Justin Lockhart, who are in the Top 65 in the country. And in Carson Strong, Nevada has a quarterback who can get the ball to them. Strong is among the Top 25 in passing efficiency, passing touchdowns, passing yards per game, passing yards per completion and points responsible for.
The Rainbow Warriors have demonstrated that they are capable of putting up points in bunches and also playing some shut-down defense. What they haven’t shown is that they can accomplish that in tandem and before they’ve dug too deep a hole to get out of.
This would be good week to change that.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
