Saturday night's game was supposed to be the unveiling of a new, wide-open passing game for the UNM football team. Instead, the Lobos offense showed it might be closer to last year's performances.
Anyone who missed the victory against the University of Texas at El Paso could have put in a tape of one of last season's games and seen the same Lobo team. They would have seen a dominant Lobo defense, good special teams, a powerful running attack and an anemic passing game.
The Lobos finished with just 52 yards of offense through the air as junior quarterback Rudy Caamano and an array of wide receivers were out of sync all night.
"We game planned perfectly, our coaches did a good job of putting us in situations to be successful, but I had trouble completing balls," Caamano said. "It was just one of those games where I was missing."
During the preseason, head coach Rocky Long and offensive coordinator Dan Dodd said they were going to open up the offense and pass the ball more because of the improvement of the offense from last year, which ranked 110th in passing.
UNM tried to show the fans how much the offense had improved right from the beginning, opening up with a four wide receiver set to try and spread out the defense. The first possession of the game for the Lobos forecasted things to come for the offense in the first half.
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Caamano handed off to senior running back Jarrod Baxter for three yards. After an incompletion, a screen pass to Baxter netted only three yards and the Lobos had to punt.
UNM's offense stalled for the entire first half, unable to get any consistent play from Caamano.
"I think our formations opened the game up and they did what they were supposed to do; we had wide open receivers all game," Caamano said. "If I would've played a little better we would have scored a lot more points."
With the offense lining up in the four-wide receiver set for most of the first half, Caamano threw the ball 24 times, connecting on only five completions. He had nine straight incompletions at one point. Caamano's passes hit the ground more than they hit his receivers' hands and were often overthrown.
Caamano also had a string of one completion in 17 attempts from the second quarter to the beginning of the third quarter. The school record crowd of 41, 771 started to show their disapproval of the offense in the second quarter by booing loudly after every incomplete pass.
"Every time a pass was called, I thought this is the one that is going to start it," he said. "It just didn't happen today, but any time you can win it doesn't matter."
The longest pass completion was a 17-yard catch along the sidelines by junior wideout Jake Farrel.
With the passing game ineffective, the focus shifted to the one aspect of the offense that did well last season - the running game. Caamano threw the ball only six times in the second half, finishing the game six for 30, which was a career-high in attempts, with two interceptions. The Lobos ran the ball 29 times in the final two quarters, wearing down the Miner defense. With a powerful offensive line, the running game amassed 271 yards, including Baxter's 184 yards.
Senior offensive lineman BJ Long said he thinks the reason the offense did not play well in the first half was because the offense was learning where they could attack the UTEP defense.
"I pretty much feel we know we can run the ball and I think we are trying to develop a really good passing game," Long said. "If we develop a really good passing game we will be a complete team and be good contenders for a conference championship."
UNM also had its usual defense, which dominated and rattled the Miner offense. The Lobo defense tied a school record for sacks with nine and held the Miner running attack to -53 yards rushing. UTEP quarterback Wesley Phillips was ineffective for most of the game due to a blitzing defense that hit him on almost every play.
The special teams had a good game as it accounted for 10 points, including freshman Wes Zunker's 51-yard field goal. It also includes recovering a fumbled punt.
However, even with the other parts of the team playing as good or better than last year, the offensive passing game needs to produce more or the result might be another sub-.500 record.
"In order for us to continue to win, we got to be able to throw the ball," Long said.
