Fact: The UNM football team is 0-9, and it’s not fine.
Solution: Well, other than consider scheduling YAFL teams, there might not be one.
Unfortunately for the Lobos, their final three games don’t get any easier. They still have to face two ranked teams — No. 22 BYU and No. 4 TCU — sandwiched around a contest with Colorado State.
All this after Saturday’s game where UNM stumbled into Salt Lake City and fell flat on its face, 45-14, against No. 17 Utah.
Utah’s 45 points against the Lobos were a season-high, and the Utes have won 17 straight home games. UNM, on the flip side, has lost 13 games in a row.
“(Saturday) we took a step backwards,” said head coach Mike Locksley. “I thought with the last three weeks we had taken steps to get better, and we will continue to
get better.”
The Lobos’ second-half struggles continued against Utah. The Utes scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a 38-7 lead at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of a crowd of 45,501.
UNM missed out on five fumbles by Utah.
Locksley said UNM needed to capitalize on the Utes’ mistakes in order to beat them.
“It’s really important when the ball is on the ground (to recover it),” Locksley said. “You’ve got five opportunities with the ball being on the ground and you don’t come up with (just) one. That’s what it takes to beat a really good team, especially a ranked team, and we let them off the hook.”
Locksley said poor tackling was the biggest of the Lobos’ woes on Saturday.
“We had a number of missed tackles, probably the most missed tackles since the Texas A&M game,” Locksley said. “I thought in the first half we did a good job of tackling the ball. The defensive backs were forcing themselves at the football, and on some of the inside runs we were not maintaining our gap control.”
Utes running back Eddie Wide rushed for 145 yards and hit several open holes in the second half, setting a school record with his sixth-straight 100-yard game.
“I thought we did a great job of containing (Wide in the first half),” Locksley said. “In the third quarter, again, he took advantage of us. You have to give a lot of credit to their offensive line. They are one of the most talented offensive lines we have faced.”
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Utah freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn made his first career start and threw for 287 yards. Wynn was 18-for-28 with two touchdown passes and one interception.
Utah bargain shopped, baiting quarterback Donovan Porterie into throwing a two-for-one. Porterie had two picks and one touchdown pass. He completed 15-of-32 passes for 186 yards.
Porterie was replaced by redshirt freshman B.R. Holbrook in the fourth quarter.
Holbrook charged UNM down the field in the final minutes of the game for the Lobos’ second score.
Holbrook connected with Victor James on a 15-yard score.
