by David J. Chavez
Daily Lobo
This time, the UNM football team dug itself a hole too deep to climb out of.
After falling behind 24-0 at halftime, the Lobos rallied to pull within 24-21 but didn't complete the comeback, losing 27-21 to Texas Christian on
Saturday.
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The loss dropped UNM to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the Mountain West Conference.
Trailing 27-21 with under a minute, the Lobos were driving down the field and had a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown before UNM quarterback Chris Nelson threw an interception on the TCU nine-yard line with 22 seconds left.
Nelson was confident he could lead the team back, but the mistake was what cost the Lobos.
"I felt really comfortable going in, even though we were down," Nelson said. "I just tried to treat it as practice and do the things that I know how to do. I was trying to make something happen, and I just threw it a little too high, and obviously their players are going to make some plays."
Nelson replaced freshman starter Donovan Porterie in the third quarter when Porterie injured his ankle.
Nelson finished the game 8-for-15 with 126 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Senior Quincy Black said the Lobos let the game get out of reach early.
"We can't go down at all in the first half," he said. "We need to come out and stop giving up so many points. We had to crawl our way back like we always do, but it wasn't enough tonight."
Junior O.J. Swift said the defense needs to play well for the full game.
"We got off to a slow start, but we played good in the second half," Swift said. "We just have to play in the first half like we did in the second, and we haven't been able to do that for the past
few games."
The Lobos cut the lead to 10 in the third quarter behind two Rodney Ferguson touchdowns.
In the fourth quarter, Nelson followed that up with an eight-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Marcus Smith to bring the Lobos within three points with 13:45 left in the game.
TCU added a field goal with 2:59 remaining, forcing the Lobos to go for a touchdown on their last drive.
Despite the loss, head coach Rocky Long said he was pleased with Nelson's performance.
"Chris did a nice job," Long said. "He always does a nice job when he comes off the bench."
Smith said the Lobos have to play smarter the rest of the
season.
"Eliminating mistakes is No. 1," Smith said "If we don't turn the ball over and have miscues, the score would have been totally different."
