REBELS ESCAPE WITH WIN - OBinKC's Dynasty

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REBELS ESCAPE WITH WIN

Posted on August 9, 2017 at 12:00 PM.

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UNLV 24, Western Illinois 21

Las Vegas, NV -- Our fears almost came true Saturday night as UNLV nearly lost with an experimental defense to an FCS school. Rebels head coach Sean O'Bannion installed the 3-3-5 defense the week of Western Illinois, so there was going to be a lot of learning on the fly. The strange thing is that he ran it throughout the entire game, and you could see the struggle firsthand.

"We weren't getting any pressure with the four man front", said O'Bannion when asked about his decision to switch mid-season. "There was going to be a leaning curve with assignments, but I'm confident that when this defense is completely installed, we're going to be better off for it."

Learning curve is right. Within the first two minutes of the game, Western Illinois drove down the field and scored easily. The Rebels were able to answer. But by the end of the third quarter, the game was tied 10-10. The lack of defense put the offense out of sync as well. Armani Rogers had 3 interceptions and no touchdowns. In the fourth quarter, though, the Rebels scored 14 more points to Western Illinois' 11 points. UNLV escaped with this victory thanks to Charles Williams who came in for the often injured Lexington Thomas. Williams ran for 3 touchdowns.

"We will be much better next week, I can promise you that", said O'Bannion. "I saw a lot of good things this week that didn't show up in the stats. But they will."

We can only hope he's right. New Mexico is next week and they aren't the pushover that Western Illinois is.