The Lobos, after a 7-5 regular season, were given the opportunity to stay home to play in the New Mexico bowl, their first bowl game since 2007, and host an old rival, Arizona. With the Lobos coming off of a long stretch of mediocrity, meaning that there were still plenty of people out there who didn’t think that this team was for real, and the Wildcats coming out of the Pac 12, there was a general impression nationally that this game wouldn’t be much of a contest. However, this is not the same Lobo team that only won 3 games in 3 seasons, this is the one who marched into Boise to beat the Broncos on their blue turf, the one that was one win shy of winning the Mountain division, and the one that seemed to get better as the season went on. Sure, they lost the game 45-37, but they proved to the 30k people in the stadium and whoever was watching on TV, this program is for real and on the rise.
This game started to feel familiar at two separate, wildly different points of the game. The first point was when Arizona first took an 18 point lead early in the second half. The Wildcats used four plays to travel 75 yards down the field and into the end zone to take a 35-17 lead. At that point, the size of the Arizona receivers was clearly giving the Lobo defense issues and the Lobos weren’t doing themselves any favors with all of their silly personal foul penalties. This was just the Tulsa game all over again.
However, as anyone who reads me regularly knows by now, I’m often wrong. The Lobos fought back, scoring a couple of touchdowns in rapid succession thanks to a successful surprise onside kick, to bring the score to 42-37 in the fourth quarter. Then, Arizona drove down the field again to set up for a short field goal. The kick went wide left and all of the sudden the Lobos had the ball, the momentum, and a chance to take the lead. This wasn’t the Tulsa game, it was more like the Hawaii one.
Unfortunately, that’s not right either. The Lobos took over after the missed field goal and drove the ball all the way down to the Arizona 18 yard line where they faced a 2nd and 3. An incomplete pass, a fumble that resulted in a 10 yard loss, and a sack ended the drive, leaving the Lobos down by 5. Arizona used a 5 minute long drive to score another field goal to go up 8 with 1:32 left in the game, which meant that the Lobos had one more chance to tie the game and try to win it in overtime. Things started out okay, getting into Arizona territory with about 45 seconds left in the game, but an errant Austin Apodaca pass was intercepted by the Wildcats, allowing them to kneel the game out and come away with the victory.
Although they lost the game, the Lobos showed that they could hang with Arizona, who is just a year removed from being in the Pac-12 championship game. Their offense was potent for most of the game, gaining 333 yards on the ground and 189 in the air, and their defense was able to buckle down to hold Arizona to just 3 points in the last 22 minutes of the game. They again showed the ability to make explosive plays, including 20+ yard runs by Lamar Jordan, Jhurell Pressley, and Ridge Jones and a 92 yard TD reception by, who else, Delane Hart-Johnson. They were able to force a couple of turnovers, including a big interception return by Cranston Jones and a forced fumble and recovery by Daniel Henry. And they did all of this in front of 30k fans who should now have a better appreciation for the type of team they became this year.
It was a special season for the Lobos, nearly winning their division and making their first bowl game in 8 years, and a loss in that bowl game won’t take away from that. This season revitalized the program, bringing excitement to the team and fans alike, and will continue to pay dividends in the future. The program looks like they have finally turned a corner and, for the first time in years, Lobo fans have every reason to look forward to next year. Go Lobos.