The Lobos had a brunch-time matchup today with Rutgers, looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to NMSU and come home with a 2-1 record. For a quarter, it looked like that was going to happen, and comfortably, as they quickly jumped out to a 21-0 lead. Then, while playing one of the most disastrous quarters in recent memory, they allowed Rutgers to score 31 straight points, setting up a 37-28 loss.

The first half alone featured one of the most bipolar performances I’ve seen out of a Lobo football team. In the first quarter, they were able to march down the field, pull off big plays, prevent Rutgers from getting anything going, and take advantage of Rutgers’ mistakes. With 43 seconds left in the quarter, when Lamar Jordan ripped off a 52-yard touchdown run to put the Lobos up 21-0, they practically looked unstoppable, as not only were they scoring a bunch of point, Rutgers had yet to pick up a first down. Then, giving us flashbacks to last week, Rutgers was able to get a speedy receiver behind the safeties and pick up a 75-yard touchdown pass.

And that’s what ushered in the second quarter of doom. In that quarter, the Lobos punted four times and threw an interception, while the Scarlet Knights scored touchdowns on a trick play, an 80-yard run, and a 69-yard punt return. When the half mercifully ended, the two teams into the locker rooms with Rutgers holding a 28-21 advantage, having scored 28 straight points. They never trailed again, as the Lobos practically gifted Rutgers three field goals in the second half while only scoring a single touchdown of their own.

It’s hard to look at a game where the Lobos started off with a 21-0 advantage and not think that they should have won. And really, watching the game, there aren’t a lot of great reasons why they ended up losing. They moved the ball pretty well and the defense held together without their leader better than I expected. The two things that stuck out to me, though, were that the kicking game was pretty rough, particularly in the “avoiding Janariorn Grant” category, and that the defense still has a tendency to give up huge plays out of nowhere. It’s sort of silly breaking it down this way, but Rutgers had two plays where they gained a combined 155 yards. Their other 60 offensive plays only resulted in 195 yards. On one hand, that latter stat is amazing, as allowing 3.25 yards per down would put the Lobos in elite company. On the other hand, only focusing on that and ignoring the other two plays is like asking Mrs. Lincoln how she enjoyed the show, otherwise.

This next week is a bye week, which feels like it’s coming at a really good time for the team. Hopefully, they’ll be able to tighten some things up while getting completely healed up for conference play. This Lobo team feels like it’s so close to being a really good team, as they have lots of talent on both sides of the ball that should be able to compete with anyone in the conference. It’s up to the coaches now to figure out what it’s going to take, whether it’s a change of personnel or of the game plan, to get the team to take that next step. I think that it’s right there for the taking.

Before the game started, I figured that this recap was going to go one of two ways. The first was if the Lobos lost while looking out of sorts with their best playmaker on offense and the backbone of their defense forced to the sidelines. There were ready-made excuses available (“If only Gipson and Cox had played. Surely we would have won!”) and a silver lining that at least the Lobos got $900,000 out of the trip. The other way I thought that it might go is if the Lobos happened to pull out a win, where I’d probably make some reference to the Lobos showing they clearly belong in the Big 10 and how they managed to get paid a lot of money to go beat Rutgers. Instead, I’m just left feeling like the Lobos missed another opportunity.