Aamaris Brown Does It Again But The UNLV Rebels Trail The Miami (Ohio) RedHawks Big At Half

It was a rough first quarter for the UNLV Rebels against the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio. The offense struggled to get anything going, and an Anthony Colandrea interception led to an onslaught of offense from quarterback Dequan Finn and the RedHawks' offense. Finn connected with Kenny Tracy, then Keith Reynolds, on consecutive drives for his first two passing touchdowns of the season, while Miami (Ohio) ran the ball at will up and down the field. The RedHawks finished the quarter up 14 - 0, but the Rebels had the ball and were driving.

The Rebels' late first-quarter drive stalled deep in the RedHawks' territory, and they had to settle for a field goal. After chipping away at the lead and making it 14 - 3, UNLV pinned Miami (Ohio) deep with a kickoff. As Finn once again led his team downfield, they fell behind the sticks for a third-and-long play. Then the play that appeared changed the game happened.

Aamaris Brown did it again! Finn rolled to his right and threw it downfield while taking a big hit to his lower body, which resulted in him landing on his head. Downfield Brown had made an incredible interception, which 67 yards later resulted in him celebrating in the end zone with a pick-six. However, back behind the play, Finn was still down for an extended period of time and had to be helped off the field with the score now 14 - 10, as the Rebels began to build momentum.

On the ensuing drive, RedHawks' backup quarterback Henry Hesson snatched momentum back with a 40-plus yard competition downfield, which led to a short touchdown pass. The Rebels had allowed their opponents to extend the lead back up to 21 - 10. UNLV had a chance to really go for the kill shot and let Miami (Ohio) off the hook with poor defensive play.

After getting the ball back, the Rebels once again began driving back down the field with Colandrea doing everything for the team both on the ground and through the air. As the two-minute warning hit, Colandrea had 54 rushing yards, while all the running backs combined for just six. Star running back Jai'Den Thomas was once again being underutilized, carrying the ball twice for just five yards. With 1:55 left in the half, the Rebels went for it on 4th and 12, leading to a turnover on downs with Colandrea taking off but unable to get enough for the first down.

On Miami's final drive of the half, Finn remained sidelined with Hesson handling quarterback duties. Things did not go as well on this drive, and the RedHawks were quickly forced to punt from midfield with 1:15 left on the clock. Inexplicably, instead of getting the ball back, the Rebels jumped offside and gave the RedHawks a fresh set of downs, rejuvenating a dead drive. This led to a successful RedHawks field goal, giving them a 24 - 10 lead at the half.

The Rebels are going to the half to regroup during the break and figure things out. Despite Brown's heroics once again, they played a terrible half of football. They have to start getting stops on defense and get the running game going if they are going to have a chance of coming back in this game.

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