by Vanessa Strobbe
Daily Lobo
Eight sacks, three turnovers and one late meaningless touchdown pass.
The UNM football team cooked up an offensive recipe for disaster Saturday night in its 27-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers.
Against Missouri's 396 total offensive yards, the Lobos scraped together 201, only 33 of which were rushing yards.
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The Lobos entered the game with the 10th-best passing offense in the nation, averaging 295.5 yards per game. However, the Tigers came to University Stadium second in the nation in total defense, allowing only 156 yards per game.
UNM head coach Rocky Long said the Lobos slowed themselves down in addition to being outplayed by Missouri.
"They have an excellent defense," he said. "But offensive struggles are not always caused by defense. We had missed assignments, execution problems and way too much pressure on the quarterback."
In his first start replacing an injured Kole McKamey, quarterback Chris Nelson performed poorly, going 16-for-31 for 168 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Nelson lost 38 yards on 11 carries, negating tailback Rodney Ferguson's 69 yards on 12 carries.
"Our offense did not play well," Long said. "If we wouldn't have turned the ball over, we could have had a chance to win the game, but the turnovers kept the momentum in their favor."
UNM's first home touchdown this season came from the Lobo defense, a group that kept the score close for most of the game.
"Our defense played lights out," said tight end John Mulchrone, who caught three passes for 49 yards. "The offense didn't back them up."
After the Lobos' only consistent offensive threat - Kenny Byrd - kicked his career-long 52-yard field goal, his second 45-yard attempt was blocked.
A faulty UNM offensive line left Nelson on the ground for eight sacks, one fumble and many rushed bad passes and throwaways.
"Being an old quarterback, I would have started yelling and screaming and cussing at my line," Long said.
Although the new offensive scheme is complicated, the team should be executing much better than it showed Saturday, Long said.
"We're not asking them to do anything they can't do," he said. "Maybe they're not mentally handling it very well, but physically they can do everything. When you combine not knowing exactly what they're supposed to do with being a little slow and playing against an athletic defense, it makes things look very bad."
The Lobos' lone offensive touchdown came late in the fourth quarter against a majority of Missouri's backups. Long said that was when the matchup was even experience-wise.
"When they put in a team as young as our team, we scored a touchdown," he said.
The last touchdown was meaningless, but it's something to build on, Nelson said.
"The last passing yards don't really matter because the game was out of reach," Nelson said. "We should have had those yards in the first half."
Ferguson said the last touchdown was an example of what the team needs to be doing every play.
"That drive is an example of what we can do," Ferguson said. "It's what we should have been doing the whole game."
