by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
The Lobos turned out to be their own worst enemy in their season opener.
In Saturday's loss to Portland State, mistakes proved to be UNM's undoing as a load of errors led to the team's failure.
"I think we were a poor football team today," said head coach Rocky Long. "The most disappointing thing is the mistakes we made. That's an undisciplined football team, and that's my job."
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While UNM outgained Portland State 339 to 233 in total yards, the Lobos had three turnovers and 11 penalties for 93 yards. Most of the mistakes came at costly times, either killing any momentum the Lobos were building or handing the momentum to Portland State.
"There were way too many penalties - penalties that kept their drives alive and stopped our drives," Long said. "Penalties were as big a factor in the outcome as anything."
Although errors are common in opening games, the Lobos made an uncharacteristic amount of slip-ups on Saturday, said Kole McKamey, UNM's senior quarterback.
"I knew that we were going to make mistakes," he said. "It's the first game, a young team, a new system on both sides of the ball, but we had way too many mistakes."
McKamey said he was frustrated with the blunders the Lobos were making. A few big penalties were called for personal fouls and late hits.
McKamey said the team should not be making those types of errors.
"We were way, way too undisciplined tonight," he said. "There's no way we're going to win with that many penalties. That showed how undisciplined our team is right now."
Long said he was specifically frustrated with the slip-ups made by the guys up front on defense. The Lobos were called offside three times in the first quarter alone, including back-to-back offside penalties following a UNM field goal.
"I thought our defensive linemen were the most undisciplined group out there," Long said. "It's all right to get pulled offside once or twice but not five or six times. That's a lack of concentration. That's a lack of wanting to do it the right way."
The Lobo offense was not without its share of errors, as holding penalties and broken protection hurt UNM in the end. Offensive tackle Robert Turner said inexperience played a big factor in those faults.
"Mistakes are part of being a young football team," Turner said. "Some of the guys who didn't have as much game experience didn't quite know how to prepare, and that was the cause of the mental mistakes."
While there is quite a bit of youth on the team, it wasn't only the newer players who made assignment errors, Lobo Quincy Black said.
"Usually, a lot of teams make a lot of mistakes during the first game, and teams get better as the season goes along," Black said. "I don't want to say it was all the young guys making mistakes because the older guys were, too. We gave up some big plays."
Wide receiver Marcus Smith said a lack of focus was the main reason the Lobos struggled Saturday. The team did not play well in its opener, but UNM should be able to bounce back with better concentration, Smith said.
"We just have to bring up our intensity, bring up our focus and bring up our drive, and everything else will fall into place," he said. "We just need to execute our game plan well, and everything will take care of itself."
