An ugly loss
Lobos embarrassed at Utah State, 61-13
LOGAN, Utah — A Tyson Dyer punt might have been a shining moment for New Mexico on Saturday.
Instead it was an example of the type of day the Lobos endured.
Dyer at one point saved a long snap that went off course to his right and then managed to boot the football all the way, 69 yards in fact, to near the Utah State goal line — the ball ever-slowing the closer it got to the stripe.
But it did go into the end zone before a Lobo could down it and the host Aggies, then marched 80 yards for a touchdown. And that’s pretty much how things went for UNM.
Utah State (7-1, 4-0 in conference) dominated the Mountain West contest, throttling the Lobos 61-19 in front of 16,119 fans at Maverik Stadium.
“Nobody wants to be in this situation,” UNM coach Bob Davie said after his team’s third loss in a row. “It’s a full-character test and everything is open for discussion right now and deservedly so.”
The Aggies, atop the Mountain West Conference and making a good case to break into the Associated Press Top 25, racked up 704 total yards to set a school record to win their seventh straight game. Utah State had 557 of those yards in the first half in rolling to a 52-5 lead at intermission.
The only time, in fact, that New Mexico (3-5, 1-3) stopped the Aggies’ offensive regulars was on the first possession.
After a Utah State three-andout to start the game, the Lobos took the ball from their 36 into USU territory before sending out place-kicker Andrew Shelley for a successful 53-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead. It was the second-longest field goal in UNM history.
Utah State retaliated with an 87-yard drive that only took 2:16 off the clock. Darwin Thompson’s 3-yard touchdown run gave the Aggies a 7-3 lead.
Now New Mexico’s turn, the Lobos’ offense moved quickly down the field before things unraveled for the visitors.
On a second down from the USU 10, Utah State defensive back Shaq Bond interecepted quarterback Sheriron Jones pass to the end zone and raced 100 yards for a touchdown.
“We felt like we could move the ball,” Davie said. “We’re not polished enough. We’re not good enough. I counted seven balls were dropped. There were four interceptions. And, they went up and made plays.
“You compare their receivers, their skill players on the perimeter, going up and making plays, to the plays we left out there on the field — it’s pretty eye-opening.”
After going up 14-3 on Bond’s pick-six, each of Utah State’s ensuing four possessions ended in touchdowns and fast.
Each drive lasted less than two minutes and, in fact, touchdowns four-through-six for Utah State took respectively 27, 54 and 59 seconds.
The last Aggies’ TD drive of the first half, which culminated with a Jordan Love 1-yard run to make the score 49-3, by contrast took 5:14 off the clock.
“Our goal is to score as quickly as possible,” said Love, the Utah State quarterback who had 448 yards passing in the first half. “When you’ve got weapons on the outside with receivers, it’s hard for a defense to defend that.”
In the second half, with most of the Aggies regulars on the bench, ace Utah State kicker Dominik Eberle kicked three field goals. New Mexico got into the end zone twice.
Coltin Gerhart, who came in relief of Jones at quarterback, found Brayden Dickey for a 9-yard TD pass in the third quarter. Late in the same period, following a hit by Lobos’ safety Patrick Peek, linebacker Evahelotu Tohi scooped up the loose ball and ran 18 yards for the final touchdown of the game.
“We made an assessment in the offseason that we needed to open our offense up and let our playmakers make plays,” Davie said. “Starting with me, are we in the right schemes with what our overall team is? Maybe why we won games is because we did take the ball down to one second before we snapped and ran it every down. Maybe we did win because we milked it and our defense didn’t have to play much.”