Tulsa Offense Too Much For New Mexico
Sept. 21, 2008
Lobo Football
Saturday: Tulsa 56, Lobos 14
Up Next: Lobos at New Mexico State
When/Where: Saturday (Sept. 27), Aggie Memorial Stadium
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
There is an adage that applies to life and sports that kind of fits what happened to the University of New Mexico Lobos in Tulsa: Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you.
The Lobos were chewed up and spit out by the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 56-14 Saturday night in Tulsa’s H.A. Chapman Stadium. The Hurricane rolled to a 21-0 first-quarter lead, made it a 28-0 cushion at the half and never looked back as they dropped UNM to 1-3 on the season heading into next Saturday’s visit to New Mexico State (1-1).
“It’s one of those nightmare games,” said Lobo head coach Rocky Long. “No matter what we tried, it didn’t work and everything they tried to do seemed to work.
“Those games happen every once in a while, but they aren’t any easier to take.”
The 42-point loss surely was a tough blow to the Lobos’ ego, but a tougher blow at Tulsa might be losing starting junior quarterback Donovan Porterie to a knee injury just before the close of the first half. Junior lobo safety Ian Clark also left the game with a shoulder injury.
“Probably the worst thing that happened to us was we lost our starting quarterback and probably Ian Clark,” said Long. “It looks to me like (Brad Gruner) is our starting quarterback now, so he had better get better a lot quicker than he has up to this point.
“I think we are going to have to re-tool a whole bunch of things. We are going to have to redesign our offense to what Brad Gruner does the best; adjust the offense to his special abilities.
“On defense, it probably eliminates us playing six defensive backs, if Ian can’t play, and it looks like that. We’ll probably have to go back to our base defense (4-3 or 3-4) which probably eliminates a lot of coverages we might be able to play.”
The Lobos might have been looking at New Mexico State as a small step down from the competition UNM has faced so far this season: TCU, Texas A&M, Arizona and Tulsa. Now, with a redshirt freshman leading the offense and an injury-weakened secondary, the Aggies’ pass-happy offense has to be viewed as a major threat.
The Hurricane offense that blew away the Lobos in Tulsa was no secret as it came into the game averaging 50.5 points and 578 yards. The key to the offense was senior quarterback David Johnson, who was the nation’s top rated QB after Tulsa’s two blow out wins over UAB and North Texas.
Johnson didn’t hurt his rating much against the Lobos as he completed 24 passes for 469 yards and 6 touchdowns. He did give up two interceptions to UNM’s Glover Quin. Tulsa totaled 606 yards on offense while UNM had 316. The Hurricane also converted on 14-of-15 third-down attempts.
Tulsa got 11 receptions for 238 yards and 5 TDs from the receiving tandem of Damaris Johnson and Slick Shelley. The Lobos got 13 grabs for 156 yards from the UNM trio of Chris Hernandez, Roland Bruno and Bryant Williams.
One of the few bright spots for UNM was senior tailback Rodney Ferguson rushing for 122 yards on 27 carries. It was his third straight 100-yard game.
This game might have been over after the first quarter when the Hurricane put 21 points on the board to zip for UNM. When the Lobos staggered into the locker room down 28-0 and Porterie out of the game, any hopes for a comeback were dim. Things didn’t get any better for the Lobos in the second half as Tulsa put another 30 points on the board.
“It wouldn’t have mattered how many guys we had back there or who was playing,” said Long. “It didn’t seem like anything we did was right.”
Porterie went down with 3:42 left in the first half, which turned the UNM huddle over to Gruner. Gruner might be the leader of the Lobos’ offense for a while as Porterie’s knee injury is listed as “serious.” Clark is expected to miss at least the NMSU game, pending a closer look at his shoulder injury.
Gruner went 7-of-12 for 96 yards against the Hurricane, but he threw three interceptions, one that was returned 41 yards for a Tulsa touchdown.
“I thought getting thrown into duty like that, (Gruner) did OK,” said Long. “I think the intensity of the game had died out some when he got in there.”
Exactly what the Lobos didn’t need to do – make mistakes – hit UNM early. The Lobos’ first offensive possession resulted in Tulsa blocking a punt by UNM’s Adam Miller. Hurricane Johnson made the Lobos pay with a 23-yard scoring strike to Damaris Johnson.
The Lobos took the kickoff and moved the ball well enough to set freshman James Aho up for a 47-yard field goal. Aho, who was 7-for-7 at that point, pushed his kick wide and missed for the first time in 2008. He did not get another chance to kick a field goal against Tulsa.
A key play in the first quarter came a few moments before Tulsa pushed the scoreboard to 14-0.
Lobo linebacker Herbert Felder blindsided Johnson and the football tumbled to the turf. UNM’s Quin picked up the loose ball and sprinted for a touchdown. Tulsa challenged the play, hoping the replay would show Johnson’s arm to be in forward motion. The challenge was upheld.
Tulsa took advantage of the reversed call and Johnson hit Shelley for a 23-yard TD at the 5:42 mark of the first quarter. What could have been a 7-7 tie turned into a healthy 14-0 lead for Tulsa.
The Hurricane took some more wind out of the Lobos’ sails with 28 seconds left in the first quarter when Johnson again went to the air looking for the other Johnson. The pass barely got past UNM’s Quin and Johnson pulled it in for Tulsa’s third TD. The kick was good and the Hurricane was up 21-0. That score held up as the first quarter closed.
Tulsa probably put the game out of reach at the 8:56 mark of the second quarter as the Hurricane marched again on the Lobos defense and ended the drive with a 7-yard TD run by A.J. Whitmore. It was 28-0.
The facts and figures that came in the aftermath of this Hurricane disaster were not the type of numbers UNM was looking for in Tulsa. The 56 points are the most points scored against UNM since Air Force duplicated that 56-14 score in 1998. Johnson’s six TD passes tie the most TDs ever thrown against UNM in a game.
After UNM’s visit to Las Cruces, the Lobos return to University Stadium for an Oct. 4 Mountain West Conference game against Wyoming. UNM is 0-1 in the MWC.
Editor’s note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner