On Saturday, the Lobos blasted the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, 59-17 to improve to 4-3 on the season. The final score actually manages to hide how big of a blowout it really was, as the Lobos pulled their starters in the third quarter when they were leading 52-3. A dominating win like that certainly gives the team some confidence heading into the final stretch of conference games, and hopefully does the same for the fans as well. Here are some scattered thoughts from the game:
- In my preview for this game, I highlighted ULM’s struggles in stopping the run, as they went into the game ranked last by advanced metrics in run defense. That didn’t seem to bode well for them against a Lobo rushing offense that is capable of getting yards against some of the highest-rated run defenses in the country. And sure enough, the Lobos just trampled over the Warhawks, rushing 51 times for 476 yards and 5 touchdowns (all by different players, no less). The Lobos’ rushing offense is legitimately special this season, as it’s currently ranked 6th overall by Football Outsiders’ S&P+ metrics and it looks like it can and will put up points against anyone.
- Up until Coach Davie took out all of the starters towards the end of the third quarter, the Warhawks were completely incapable of getting anything going against the Lobo defense. With the starters in the game, ULM only gained 102 yards on their 11 drives, with their longest drive gaining a whopping 22 yards. If we’re being completely fair, I think that the Warhawks looked fairly out of sorts, probably because their starting quarterback went down with a season-ending injury in their previous game, so they ended up starting a freshman in his place. The defense absolutely took advantage of the situation, which was good to see, and played about as well as we’ve seen them all year, so hopefully they can carry that into the next game, where they’ll face a much tougher offense in Hawaii.
- Jason Sanders has been quietly putting together a really solid season. After having a rough time, and ultimately losing his position as the field goal kicker last season, he’s starting to look like the sort of kicker that we hoped he’d become. He’s currently 7-8 on field goals this season and has made all of his attempts greater than 40 yards, including a booming 49-yard field goal against Air Force that might have been good from 60 yards. He’s also made all 37 extra point attempts, which maybe doesn’t seem notable, but having a college kicker do that consistently is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, he even made an extra point against ULM from 45 yards! Besides that, he’s kicked off 49 times this season, forcing 45 touchbacks. Never giving your opponent a chance to break out a long run is a weapon, and he’s been one of the best at it.
- I’d be remiss if I didn’t recap this game and didn’t mention the attendance, given that seems to be one of the biggest things people took away from it. The announced attendance was only 18,099, which somehow is less than what was announced last week in the Cotton Bowl against Air Force, when most of the time it looked like they were playing in an empty stadium. It’s comfortably the lowest attendance of the season and, given all of the recent talk about the school’s budget problem, probably made some people really uncomfortable when they saw that number (fun-ish fact: the best attended game this season was against the FCS team, South Dakota). The next game will be played at 8:15pm in the middle of November, so I can only imagine that the attendance issues aren’t going to improve by much. It’s a shame though, as they could potentially clinch bowl-eligibility in that game. Who knows, maybe that will get people interested in Lobo football again?