UNM faced its first real test of the season, matching up against the visiting University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and it… well, things could have gone better. In a game that was expected to be defined by a lot of scoring and offense, only Tulsa really lived up to that expectation. Tulsa put up 40 points on 600 yards of offense, coming pretty evenly on the ground and through the air. The Lobos, on the other hand, only managed 21 points from their 390 yards. With the game not being a shootout, it was instead defined by something else.
The NCAA Football Rulebook is over 200 pages long, and for some reason the NCAA wants you to buy a copy of the rulebook just to look at it. I’m not sure that I feel like I need to invest in that anymore, as the Lobos seemed to have found every possible penalty in the book. Just 10 days after Davie bragged in his presser how the team has been one of the least penalized in the nation the last couple of seasons, they managed to collect 14 penalties for a ridiculous 154 yards. To top that off, there were even a couple of penalties that were declined. Davie seems proud of how disciplined the team is, so I can only imagine the drills he’s going to put them through this next week at practice. It’s hard enough to win when you’re facing a solid team. It’s much harder when you decide to help them beat you.
As far as the game itself went, the first quarter played to everyone’s expectations. UNM scored 2:48 minutes into the game, and then Tulsa answered by scoring a touchdown 48 seconds later. Things slowed down a little, with the Lobos going three-and-out followed by Tulsa driving down the field to kick a field goal. Then, the Lobos had one of the stranger 11-play touchdown drives that I can remember. After a touchback, they started by appearing to go three-and-out again, but then Zach Rodgers pulled off a fake punt on 4th and three by running to the right side to the UNM 40 for 8 yards. At the end of the run, Nik D’Avanzo was called for a personal foul, which set the team up for first and 10 from the Lobo’s 25. Right back to where they started. Then, Damien Gamblin ran for 16 yards, for another first down, but then another personal foul, this time by Eden Mahina, dropped the Lobos back another 15 yards. So, after five plays, the Lobos had two first downs and one total yard gained. They then squeaked out another first down on a 3rd and two, gained two yards in the next two plays, and then connected on a 62 yard touchdown pass from Lamar Jordan to Gamblin. Truly a textbook drive.
The second quarter was where things seemed to fall apart. The Lobos had four straight possessions that resulted in a punt, in which they gained a total of -5 yards. During that time, Tulsa scored their second touchdown on a deep pass and their second field goal after a sustained drive. Luckily for the Lobos, the fourth punt bounced off of a Tulsa player and the Lobos recovered it near midfield. Because they couldn’t have nice things tonight, D’Avanzo was called for another personal foul, which backed the Lobos up to their own 32. The next play saw Austin Apodaca get sacked for five yards and Aaron Jenkins get called for, you guessed it, a personal foul. This put the Lobos at 2nd and 28 from their own 14. Mercifully, the half ended shortly thereafter with UNM down 20-14.
In the third quarter, Tulsa scored a quick field goal to go up 23-14 and then UNM answered right back with a touchdown to make the score 23-21. After one of the Lobos’ best defensive series tonight, UNM drove down the field and set up for a 42 yard field goal that would have put them up by one. Unfortunately, the kick sailed to the right of the goal posts and the wind seemed to be taken out of the stadium’s sails. Tulsa used their next possession to drive down the field quickly and score another touchdown. UNM then had the following outcomes in their remaining series: punt, fumble, interception (which happened after a touchdown was called back after a penalty), and turnover-on-downs. Tulsa then ran out the clock to finish out their 40-21 victory.
This game did have some questionable play calls throughout, mostly dealing with runs up the middle. UNM had very little success running the ball up the gut, getting stuffed seemingly every time. It felt like any time they had a decent run, it was when they were able to use their speed to get out to the edge and just run past the defense. At the same time, Tulsa was running the ball up the middle at will. On one possession, I think I counted six straight plays where they did an inside handoff, and they gained chunks of yards each time. It looked like Tulsa was able to do this because of the defensive scheme the Lobos were using. With their 3-3-5, the Lobos were spread out to try to prevent the deep balls that had been hurting them all game. With that, there were huge gaps that both Tulsa running backs were able to exploit. That said, when the Lobos were in a goal line stand, the defense was much more effective because they were able to defend against the run without having to worry about a deep ball. That’s going to need to be worked on in the very likely case that other teams try to exploit that as well.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that both Lamar Jordan and Austin Apodaca saw time in the first half. That comes with a bit of a caveat, though, as Apadoca didn’t come in until the first half was almost over and the play calls were all going to be for passes. It seemed strange at the time, though, as Jordan had already made a couple of nice passes and Apodaca was coming in cold. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t work out, although I don’t really think it was Apodaca’s fault. The offensive line was having difficulty giving him any time to get a good pass off and even when he did, his receivers couldn’t hang onto the ball. I still think I would have preferred Jordan to stay in the game, but it seems that Davie is still trying to figure this situation out in real time.
This felt like an important game going in, one that would define the course of the season. That’s why this result seems like such a disappointment. If we take a step back, though, it was only the second game of the season and the first “real” game. There’s a lot of season still ahead of us, and a lot of chances for the Lobos to still have a successful season. That doesn’t mean that any of us have to feel good about tonight.
Next week, they’re off to Arizona State, where a win would leave this game feeling like a distant memory. Go Lobos!