Abilene Christian hung with New Mexico for much of the game, but the Lobos eventually pulled away to win their season opener on Saturday night at Dreamstyle Stadium.
Head coach Bob Davie said Abilene Christian had a nice scheme, and it took his team a while to adjust to it.
“Obviously, (there are) a lot of things that we have to improve on, but we’re 1-0,” Davie said.
UNM was clicking early, as senior quarterback Lamar Jordan froze an ACU defender with a hesitation and reeled off a 27-yard run. He appeared to be going in for the touchdown, but was taken down at the seven — the tackle proved to be big.
Abilene Christian stuffed the Lobos on fourth a few plays later near the goal line. Even if the Lobos didn’t punch it in, ACU would have to drive 99 yards.
But that was no problem for the Wildcats as they sustained a 15-play drive, converted twice on third down and eventually took a 7-0 lead on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Dallas Sealey to Carl Whitley.
That drive seemed to wake up New Mexico, though, as the Lobos responded with a quick-hitting drive to tie the game just five plays later. Running back Daryl Chestnut took the pitch and broke outside to score from four yards out.
Chestnut’s touchdown was just the first score along the way to New Mexico scoring 38 unanswered points to seize control of the game.
But it took a while to get there.
The score was 14-7 at the half after fellow Lobo running back Tyrone Owens added another 4-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, but neither team could sustain a drive for the rest of the half.
Abilene Christian had a rough start to the second half. After driving into field goal range, an errant snap went over the quarterback’s head and ACU lost 26 yards on the play — squandering a chance to inch closer on the scoreboard.
New Mexico took advantage, going to its ground attack as Chestnut broke free for a 54-yard run down the right sideline for his second touchdown of the game — matching his total touchdown production from last season already.
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Although the rushing game produced some big plays, it didn’t seem to match the usual explosive ability Lobo fans have grown accustomed to. The leading rusher was Romell Jordan, who has 65 yards in the game — 44 of which came on one run.
Chestnut said the Wildcats were stacking the box, but New Mexico was able to stay balanced with an effective passing night from Lamar Jordan.
Lamar Jordan went 9-11 for 177 yards in the first half and ended the game with a career-high 213 passing yards — the most by a quarterback under coach Davie during his tenure at UNM.
“We were balanced, but I kind of like when we’re running the ball down somebody’s throat a little bit more, to be honest,” Davie said.
Then the defense began putting the clamps on the opponents, getting pressure on the quarterback and forcing bad decisions.
Senior safety Jake Rothschiller forced a fumble after he sacked the quarterback, which led to three points, and he later jumped in front of a pass and had just enough gas in the tank to return the interception 91 yards for a touchdown.
His interception return, which was the sixth-longest in program history, made the score 38-7 with 11:06 remaining and pretty much killed any chance ACU had at staging a comeback.
The Wildcats added a late touchdown with 14 seconds remaining in the game after recovering a New Mexico fumble to make the final score 38-14.
New Mexico will stay at home to host rival New Mexico State next week on Sept. 9 at 6 p.m., hoping to avenge a bitter loss down in Las Cruses, New Mexico last season.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball, football and tennis. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
