Lobo Football Culture Seeds Taking Root, But Boise State Loss Shows Bloom Not Yet in Sight
Boise State defensive end Jayden Virgin-Morgan (5) knocks the ball loose from New Mexico quarterback Jack Layne for a fumble in the first quarter. (AP Photo/Steve Connor)
There are no more moral victories six games into the season, no matter how courageous the effort.
Despite thorough statistical Boise State domination and as poor a start as a visiting team can have to start the game on the Broncos’ blue turf, the University of New Mexico was in a one-score game entering the fourth quarter.
The bigger, stronger, faster and most importantly, deeper, Broncos pulled away for a 41-25 victory the lion-hearted but outmatched Lobos on Saturday night.
Memories of a stunning 3-1 start to the season are starting to fade for UNM, now 3-3 overall and 0-2 in Mountain West play.
The backbreaker was a 10-yard pass from field goal holder Oscar Doyle to Troy Grizzle after Doyle fumbled the snap on a 27-yard field goal attempt midway through the fourth quarter.
UNM is becoming much more mistake-prone than it had been during the first four games of the season. It committed three turnovers, two on its first two possessions.
Boise State held New Mexico to 49 yards rushing. Starting QB Jack Layne completed 7 of 17 passes for 115 yards with one TD and two interceptions. He also fumbled on a sack on the first play from scrimmage in the game.
The Lobos are minus-10 in turnover margin on the season.
“That’s a very good defense,” coach Jason Eck said of the Broncos in a postgame interview. “That just tells us we’re just playing the best defense in the conference. We’ve got to play better. We’re not good enough right now to handle them.”
The Lobos had a season-high eight penalties, including a delay of game at the start of a fourth quarter possession. The Lobos also had to take a timeout on defense to start the fourth quarter before Boise State even ran a play.
Credit to Eck, who has brought a resolve not present on the Cherry and Silver sidelines in years. The Lobos actually led the game 14-10 in the second quarter and trailed 20-17 entering the fourth.
The Broncos (4-2, 2-0) scored 21 straight fourth quarter points to pull away. At one point in the game, they ran an unheard of 45 more plays (84-39) than UNM before the Lobos’ 15-play final touchdown drive of the night. Games as lopsided as this in years past may have resulted in much larger margin of defeats for the Lobos – the 72-0 kind that they suffered against the likes of Oregon in 2010.
“We’ve got to do a much better job on offense,” Eck said. “I do think we took a step forward on defense. We’ve got to do a better job on conversion downs. (The Broncos) were 7 of 18 on third down, which isn’t great, but they were 6 of 7 on fourth down, so they were really 14 of 19 (on conversion downs).”
UNM does have some seedlings of a foundation. The fact that New Mexico drove the ball 75 yards on 15 plays for a touchdown with backup quarterback James Laubstein in a game already decided shows a new toughness.
Saturday night was a lesson to Eck’s Lobos on what they should aspire to become looking across the field.
UNM, with 72 new players, simply doesn’t have the depth, the strength of the culture to match Boise State. At least, not yet.
