UNM head football coach Rocky Long went into Saturday's game against the University of Utah fearing that his defense would have trouble stopping the Utes' vaunted running game.
His fears came to fruition as Utah exploded for three rushing touchdowns in the second half to wear down the Lobos 37-16 in both teams' Mountain West Conference opener.
"Our whole team is very inconsistent," Long said. "I thought we played really, really good run defense for two (quarters) and three-fourths of the third quarter.
"They were averaging three yards a carry and all of a sudden we give up a 46-yarder and a 74-yarder and it's almost six yards a carry and everybody says you can't play run defense."
The Lobos (1-3, 0-1 in the Mountain West) tied the game at 14 on their first possession in the second half on a 47-yard touchdown pass from back-up quarterback Casey Kelly, who replaced struggling Rudy Caamano, to wide receiver Dwight Counter.
Linebacker Gary Davis' sack in the end zone of Utah quarterback Lance Rice gave the Lobos a 16-14 lead.
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But running backs Dameon Hunter and Adam Tate helped the Utes (3-1, 1-0) explode for 23 unanswered points to spell doom for the Lobos.
Long said Kelly will start at quarterback when the Lobos take the field against Wyoming University Saturday.
"I thought he threw with a lot more velocity," Long said. "More importantly, he was a lot more accurate with the ball than Rudy has been most of the year."
Kelly finished 7-of-24 passing for 124 yards and Caamano, before being pulled, threw three completions on 11 attempts for 41 yards and one interception.
On the Utes' first series of the game, Hunter rumbled 12 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Utah lead.
After UNM safety Scott Gerhardt intercepted a Rice pass, which was tipped in the air by Terrell Golden, the Lobos took over at their own 13-yard line with 10:05 remaining in the second half and sophomore Kelly in the place of Caamano.
"That was something we decided on a week ago," Long said. "We had already decided that he'd play in the second quarter and if he did good, he'd stay in, and if he didn't, Rudy would come back."
On the first play of the series, Kelly found Counter 40 yards downfield for his first Division-I completion.
Fullback Jarrod Baxter followed with a 33-yard gain to put the Lobos in scoring position. Unfortunately, Kelly's inexperience at the helm contributed to a miscommunication in the Lobos' fly motion set.
Kelly fell back too closely to the man in motion, the ball spurted out of his hands and the Utes recovered it.
The Lobos were again in scoring position on their next possession after Kelly opened the drive with a 12-yard scamper.
Baxter found a gaping hole on the right side which would have been a 29-yard gain, but he fumbled at the nine-yard line for the Lobos' costly third turnover of the game.
Golden recovered a fumble on Utah's next possession and the Lobos had the ball first and goal on the Utah nine.
UNM finally got on the board when Baxter bulled his way into the end zone for his fifth touchdown of the season.
But with less than two minutes to play in the second quarter Utah struck back.
Quarterback Ryan Breska, who replaced Rice, found speedster Cliff Russell on a screen pass, which at first looked like a short gain, but he ran in for a touchdown from 48 yards out to put the Utes up 14-7.
Long attributed the touchdown to a defensive lapse.
"That seems to be our nemesis this year," Long said of the wide receiver screen play. "That's a recognition thing. Our kids have to recognize it and retrace. And even when we call the right play, we're not making the tackle."
In the second half, after the Lobos took a 16-14 lead, Utah would pull away, controlling the ball for much of the second half.
The Lobos were forced to punt on six of their last seven possessions.
With 7:14 to play in the third quarter, Utah started on a 13-play 70-yard scoring drive culminating with kicker Ryan Kaneshiro's 33-yard field goal, to put the Utes up 17-16. The drive seemed to take the steam out of the UNM defense.
With time running out in the third, Utah's Adam Tate ran for a 46-yard touchdown.
Later, Hunter ran 74 yards unabated towards the UNM goal line and was stopped short of a touchdown by linebacker Shannon Kincaid.
But one play later, he took it in for another Ute touchdown. Finally, with 4:04 to play in the game, Tate's 8-yard touchdown run capped the scoring for the Utes.
Utah amassed 465 yards of total offense, including 255 rushing yards, after the Lobos had been allowing only 27 per game on the ground.
UNM compiled 311 offensive yards, including Baxter's 95 rushing yards on 15 carries.
