Lobos stick with their defensive plan to the end
However, UNLV takes advantage
True to their defensive identity, the New Mexico Lobos never stopped blitzing and playing man-to-man coverage Friday night against UNLV.
When they found themselves 1 minute, 5 seconds away from what would have been a precious victory, should they have tried something else?
Tony Sanchez, UNLV’s third-year coach, seemed to think so Friday night.
But Bob Davie, Sanchez’s UNM counterpart, said he has no regrets.
“Every game I’ve ever been in that’s come down the end, and (strategy) doesn’t work out, you always second-guess a little bit what you did,” Davie said after a Sunday evening practice. “But when I really came back and thought about it in the end, I think we were in, probably, what we should have been in.”
The strategy definitely did
not work out.
After the Rebels’ 38-35 victory at Dreamstyle Stadium, Sanchez, UNLV’s third-year coach, said he was pleased to see the UNM defense line up the way it did on the Rebels’ game-winning drive.
“(The Lobos) stayed in cover one and gave us some opportunities there,” Sanchez said.
Cover one, or man free, is a designation for manto-man coverage in the secondary with a free safety as a center fielder.
On a 50-yard Armani Rogers-to-Darren Woods Jr. pass that set up the game-winning touchdown, the Lobos lined up with their usual personnel: three down linemen, three linebackers, five defensive backs. The only “prevent” element was the positioning of free safety Jake Rothschiller some 20 yards deep in the middle of the field.
On the snap, the Lobos rushed six players. The blitz was picked up, although inside linebacker Siti Tamaivena almost got there.
For the Lobos, it was an “almost” sort of play.
Woods, running down the seam, got a step on Lobos cornerback Jalin Burrell. Had Burrell turned his head a splitsecond sooner, he might have knocked the ball down or even intercepted.
Instead, Woods, 6 feet and 220 pounds, made the catch on the run at the UNM 37-yard line and dragged Burrell to the 14 before going down.
Rothschiller, meanwhile, almost but not quite got there in time to make a play.
“They beat us,” said Lobos linebacker Alex Hart, who blitzed on the play from the right side but was blocked. “We tried bringing pressure ... but (Rogers) made a great throw and made a great play.”
On the next play, the Lobos again rushed six but did not get to Rogers, who threw a fade to wide receiver Kendal Keys (6-4, 205). Keys easily beat sophomore cornerback Elijah Lilly (5-10, 152) for the game-winner.
Again, Rothschiller was unable to arrive in time to help.
“I saw Kendal one on one with one of their corners, and the (free) safety is in the middle of the field, and it played out exactly the way I wanted it to,” Rogers said.
All the above happened after Lobos senior quarterback Lamar Jordan’s 41-yard touchdown run had given UNM a 35-30 lead with 1:11 left.
Davie said it was Rogers’ running ability that argued against a threeman rush with six defensive backs, etc. Rogers rushed for 193 yards Friday, including an 83-yard touchdown run just before halftime.
“There was never a time when you weren’t worried about the quarterback because of his speed, scrambling on you,” he said.
The loss dropped the Lobos, losers of six straight games, to 3-8 on the season, 1-6 in Mountain West Conference play. UNLV is 5-6 and 4-3, and can gain bowl eligibility with a victory over Nevada on Saturday.
The Lobos’ season finale comes Friday against San Diego State (9-2, 4-2) and former UNM coach Rocky Long.
The Lobos’ 482 yards rushing against UNLV moved the Lobos up to 15th nationally with an average of 249.4 yards per game. If they can’t improve on that number at San Diego State, this year will be their lowest average during the Davie era.
Defensively, the past two games — Texas A&M and UNLV — have dropped UNM from 34th to 66th in total defense (392.1 yards per game). The Lobos gave up a total of 1,096 yards to the Aggies and the Rebels.
Senior punter Corey Bojorquez ranks third nationally with an average of 47.4 yards per attempt.