"Stuff happens," said Grice-Mullen, a second-year freshman who finished with six catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. "I can't say anything else about it. It just happens sometimes."

Brennan said: "Ryan has done so many great things for us this year, you can never fault him for a situation like that or a play like that. You just pat him on the butt and say, 'Let's get it next time.' "

"I was trying to make something happen," said Ilaoa, who was hit by defensive end Erics Clark on a cut-back move. "You gamble, and sometimes you get beat. It happened to me that time. It's my fault all of the way. I have to keep that thing secure. When I cut back, I left the ball by itself isolated, and they took advantage of it."

On slamming into Stanley, Peoples said, "I saw him coming my way, but my momentum was carrying me all of the way, and I couldn't really slow down. I tried to get away, but I made a stupid play. I want to apologize to my teammates, the coaches and everybody in Hawai'i who was rooting for us."

Meanwhile, the Warriors had difficulty slowing Nevada's self-styled "Pistol" offense. In the Pistol, which was designed by Nevada coach Chris Ault in March, Rowe is aligned 4 yards from the line of scrimmage. Mitchell is 7 yards back, and usually directly behind Rowe, allowing him to run to either side without the formation tipping off the direction. The four receivers are aligned wide — a tactic designed to keep defenses from crowding the tackle box — and sometimes they go in motion.

UH defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville's counter move was a reverse-zone blitz, in which the cornerbacks played man-to-man coverage on the wideouts and everybody else took turns blitzing.

But Rowe kept the Warriors' off-balance with bootlegs and play-action passes. On the Wolf Pack's final play of the first quarter, Rowe faked a handoff to Mitchell, rolled to his left and fired to Spencer, who made the catch at the 1 before slow-motioning into the end zone.

On the first drive of the second half, Rowe eluded blitzing outside linebacker Kila Kamakawiwo'ole and threw high to Spencer, who soared for a one-handed catch in the end zone.

And when the Warriors ordered multiple blitzes, the Wolf Pack countered with shovel passes to an in-motion slotback or handoffs to Mitchell, a 5-foot-8, 210-pound senior who was shielded by the 6-5 Rowe.

Mitchell found openings on misdirection plays, perimeter runs and cutbacks.

Glanville said of Mitchell: "I told the team all week, 'This was a man carrying the football. It was no child. It was a full-grown man. You had to tackle him.' I'm disappointed we didn't tackle him better."

None of Mitchell's 27 carries was stopped in the Nevada backfield.

"They kept bouncing it outside or cutting it back to where our defense wasn't set up," UH nose tackle Michael Lafaele said. "They did a good job countering our defense. I guess they ran everything in their playbook."

The Warriors had some hopeful moments. Davone Bess caught 12 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. Ross Dickerson set up a UH touchdown with an 87-yard, catch-and-sprint play — the fourth longest in school history.

But the Warriors turned the ball over twice — Nevada had none — and failed to stop the Wolf Pack on a third-and-10 and fourth-and-11 situations. Brennan was sacked five times, the receivers dropped three passes in the second half, and, even, Bess ran the wrong route on a potential scoring pass.

"We were really optimistic about the game," Brennan said. "We thought everything was going to work out for us. We thought we were going to show up and get the job done. The way it went, we had to battle and battle, and in the end, they took us away from the battle. All you can do is lift your head and move on. There are a ton of seniors and a lot of great players on this football team, and they deserve something better. We have to figure it out, keep working hard and do whatever we can to win our final three games. We owe our seniors a strong finish."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.