by David J. Chavez
Daily Lobo
The quarterback shuffle didn't work for the UNM football team Saturday as much as it would
have liked.
Due in part to an offense that failed to move the ball, the Lobos dropped their homecoming game to Wyoming, 14-10.
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The loss puts the Lobos at 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the Mountain West Conference.
The UNM offense continued its struggles on Saturday with only 190 total yards. The Cowboys' offense countered with 318 yards and 14 second-half points.
UNM started senior Chris Nelson at quarterback and played redshirt freshman Donovan Porterie about two quarters.
Nelson went 4-of-14 passing for 44 yards and was sacked once. Porterie passed for 68 yards on 7-of-17 passing and was sacked three times.
The interchange of quarterbacks was difficult, but Nelson said he accepts it.
"It's tough to get a rhythm being a quarterback when you're not in there for very long and you're switching off and on," Nelson said. "But you can't attribute it to that because we're a team. And we win as a team and lose as a team."
The Lobos came out strong in the first half. Offensively, UNM managed to score 10 points while the Lobos shutout Wyoming defensively.
The swarming Lobo defense forced three turnovers in the first half.
UNM failed to convert a DeAndre Wright interception in the first quarter into points but pushed Wyoming back to its own 24-yard line with a punt. One play later, Tyler Donaldson sacked Karsten Sween, knocking the ball loose. Lobo safety Tyson Ditmore was able to recover the ball.
The Lobos then scored their only touchdown when tailback Rodney Ferguson ran in for a one-yard score with 6:19 left in the first quarter.
The team stuck to the game plan at times but couldn't perform consistently,
Porterie said.
"No matter what quarterback is in there, we should just go in there and execute," he said. "For a minute in the game, we were executing, but from an offensive standpoint, our focus level has to get turned up."
In the second quarter, UNM converted another Wyoming turnover into points when Quincy Black picked off a deflected pass from Sween and returned it 35 yards.
That set up a 45-yard field goal by Kenny Byrd that pushed the score to 10-0, giving UNM control going into halftime.
However, the Lobos could not keep that momentum going to open the third quarter.
Wyoming scored a touchdown on its first possession of the second half with a seven-play, 64-yard drive.
Linebacker Cody Kase said the defense played well in stretches of the game, but it failed in the end.
"The defense played OK, but we didn't play well enough to win," Kase said. "We played well at points, but we can't have letups like we did. We need to play more consistently."
In the second half, the team's production came to a standstill.
The Cowboys started the fourth quarter just like they did the third. The game-winning touchdown was scored on a nine-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a pass from Sween to wide receiver
Michael Ford.
UNM head coach Rocky Long said the team showed no progress Saturday.
"Whenever you're a part of a team in any sport, you keep trying to improve and keep trying to get better, and you try to improve on what you didn't do well," Long said. "Some days it works, and some days it doesn't."
