John Byrne / Nevada Media Services

If something happens once, it is probably an accident. If the same thing happens a second time, it’s likely just a coincidence. But if it happens a third time, now that’s a problem.

For the third season in a row, Fresno State’s star tailback and the best player on a 100-man roster has been injured, missing time and having a significant impact on his team’s performance.

In the ’Dogs’ 52-14 embarrassing loss to Nevada, which hardly qualified as a football game, the nation’s leading rusher, Ryan Mathews, was knocked out.

Sorry, poor choice of words.

On a check-down pass in the second quarter, Mathews was leveled by Nevada safety Jonathon Amaya and suffered a concussion. The injury looked rather serious and it was clear that Mathews wasn’t going to play another down against the Wolf Pack.

The fans knew it. The announcers said it. The medical staff took his helmet away. But the worst part of it all – the Bulldogs players and coaches packed it in.

Coach Pat Hill should have just thrown in the towel, saved everyone two hours and used his headset to phone the bus driver to tell him to get the motor warmed up.

It was absolutely pathetic to see the Bulldogs lose all pride and lose their fight. All the players were looking around with bewildered looks on their faces.

Here’s a few statistics after the 3:45 mark in the second quarter.

Fresno State scored exactly zero points. Nevada scored, wait a minute, carry the … 35 points.

The Bulldogs had five turnovers after Mathews’ injury. The Wolf Pack had zero.

Nevada amassed a total of 461 rushing yards, 150 of those yards coming on runs of 65 and 85 yards after Mathews was hurt. In the entire game, the Bulldogs only had 145 yards on the ground.

The last 34 minutes of the game were dreadful. Not even Hill could find a way to make a positive from the situation.

“We got outplayed physically today,” Hill said. “I thought Nevada was definitely the better team.”

Maybe Nevada was physically the better team and had a somewhat better game plan in place, but that Wolf Pack team isn’t 38 points better that the Bulldogs, is it? No team in the Western Athletic Conference should be 38 points better than Fresno State, right?

Without Mathews, Nevada proved that this Fresno State team is fragile. He was the lynchpin holding the team together. After Mathews was hurt, the Bulldogs were just 65 guys on the sideline, not a cohesive unit.

But the blame for that doesn’t go on the quarterback, or the shoddy defense or the usual scapegoat (the kicker).

The blame for Saturday’s loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the head coach.

Let’s be real. Mathews was not going to be able to win this game for the ’Dogs, even if he is the best college football player in the country.

After all, he only had 32 yards before he was hurt.

Hill and his staff should have had a crisis management plan in place, just in case the worst-case scenario became reality. Bulldogs fans have been knocking on wood all year hoping Mathews would stay healthy and trying desperately to forget how his last two seasons ended.

He’s the most valuable player on the team without a doubt, but his value isn’t 38 points a game.

Mathews update
It was determined that Mathews suffered a mild concussion at Nevada, according to the team’s spokesperson Steve Weakland.

Mathews will be re-evaluated Tuesday and his status for the Bulldogs’ game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday is unknown. The game will be the final home game of the season for the Bulldogs.

Even though Mathews only managed 32 yards, he is still leading the nation in rushing yards, averaging 149 yards per game, seven yards ahead of UTEP’s Donald Buckram.