RENO – The Nevada defense has had its struggles in the early going of the 2008 season, but Wolf Pack fans still expected it to show up Saturday.

If it was there, New Mexico State didn’t notice. The Aggies moved the ball seemingly at will all day and outlasted Nevada 48-45 in a Western Athletic Conference football battle Saturday afternoon.

New Mexico State ran 83 plays and racked up 513 yards of total offense. Aggies quarterback Chase Holbrook finished his day 28-of-47 for 409 yards and three touchdowns.

“I'm not sure we deserved to win playing that kind of football. Defensively speaking we were non-existent. The offense played well,” Nevada coach Chris Ault said.

The two teams traded scoring drives throughout the conference clash, but the tide turned against Nevada in the final quarter. The Wolf Pack tied the game at 38-38 in the final minute of third quarter. Holbrook made one of his few mistakes on the day — and his only interception — when he was intercepted on a third-and-13 play deep in his own territory by Mo Harvey. The Wolf Pack defensive back returned the pigskin 20 yards to the NMSU 14.

Two plays later, Nevada running back Vai Taua hauled in a Colin Kaepernick pass and cruised across the goal line from 16 yards out, knotting the score.

New Mexico State was unfazed. The Aggies answered with another scoring drive. The visitors rolled up 80 yards on seven plays and Holbrook threw his third touchdown pass of the day, 7 yards to Marcus Anderson. It gave the Aggies a 45-38 lead with 13:38 to go in the contest.

“We felt we should've won this game but at the same they're a good team. You've got to play better on defense. It doesn't matter how much the offense puts up and how good they play, if you can't stop them,” Wolf Pack linebacker Mike Bethea said.

New Mexico State forced one of its few stops on the day on Nevada ’s next possession. Then the Aggies added an insurance score with an 18-yard Hughes field goal to push the margin to two scores, 48-38 with 6:27 remaining in the WAC clash.

“You've gotta execute. You've gotta play football,” Ault said. “Too many times their receivers were wide open. They were executing better than us. There wasn't any magic wands. Their offense outplayed our defense. That's it.”

Still, Nevada didn’t run away and hide. Chris Wellington pulled in a 19-yard Kaepernick pass for a touchdown and Nevada cut the NMSU edge to three, 48-45 with 3:51 still showing on the game clock. It took Nevada just 2:29 to cover 77 yards on eight plays.

That’s as good as it got for the Wolf Pack. Nevada opted not to on-side kick. New Mexico State then got two first downs and proceeded to run out the clock.

“The offense, with a couple exceptions, I thought played well,” Ault said. “We moved the ball on the ground, kept their offense off the field and scored. The problem is you had to score almost every time you had the ball and that's tough. They played well and deserved to win. In Mackay stadium, that's just unacceptable.”

Nevada had its fair share of leads. The Wolf Pack held a 24-21 edge at the intermission. However, New Mexico State took the first possession after halftime and needed less than three minutes to find the end zone. The Aggies needed just five plays to go 70 yards and score on a 2-yard Holbrook run. The quick score lifted the guests back into the lead, 28-24, with 12:44 left in the third quarter.

If it wasn’t already apparent that neither defense would be effective, all doubt was erased when Nevada answered with a 69-yard scoring drive that took 2:44. Kaepernick collected his first touchdown pass of the day when he made a 5-yard scoring toss to Taua for a 31-28 Wolf Pack lead.

Taua had a big day for Nevada in the losing cause. The sophomore running back tallied 191 rushing yards on 20 carries for two touchdowns. He also had 49 receiving yards on five receptions for two more touchdowns.

Nevada finished the day with 507 offensive yards of its own, 313 of those came on the ground.

Wolf Pack fans liked the way the game started. Nevada wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. It took the Wolf Pack just 2:10 to find the end zone. The Wolf Pack put together a 64-yard drive that Colin Kaepernick capped with a 32-yard run on a quarterback keeper, leading to a quick 7-0 Nevada lead with 12:50 still showing on the first-quarter clock.

“When it comes down to it we're a team. We're gonna win together, we're going to lose together. It's not the offense did this, the defense did that. The offense has to step up, the defense has to step up,” Kaepernick said.

The two teams traded three-and-outs on the next two possessions, but then New Mexico State went to work. The Aggies marched 80 yards to knot the game at 7-7 thanks to a 3-yard touchdown run by Marquel Colston at the 7:17 mark of the first quarter.

Nevada regained the lead on the ensuing possession thanks to a 41-yard Brett Jaekle field goal. However, the field goal was a small victory for the Aggies’ defense as an 11-play Nevada drive that ate up more than five minutes stalled, leaving the Wolf Pack to settle for just the three points and a 10-7 edge with 1:21 to go in the initial quarter.

The teams combined for 15 scores on the day and the aforementioned field goal drive lasted 5:50, the longest drive of the day.

Nevada also also led 17-14 and 24-21 after first-half touchdowns, but like all its leads, those evaporated after New Mexico State's quick scoring strikes.