Oct. 23, 2008
Thursday: Air Force 23, Lobos 10
Next: Lobos vs. Utah, Nov. 1, University Stadium
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It started so good: a 10-0 Lobos’ lead. It ended so bad: a 23-10 Air Force win.
The University of New Mexico, fueled by two Air Force turnovers, jumped to a 10-0 lead and was advancing a third Falcon turnover toward another apparent UNM score.
Then the bad hit.
UNM quarterback Brad Gruner slashed into the left side of the Lobos’ O-line, but was smacked by Falcon linebacker Brandon Reeves. The ball popped out and Falcon Aaron Kirchoff scooped up the loose ball on the move. He didn’t stop for 96 yards. An Air Force team about to fall into a smothering 17-0 hole was now down only 10-7.
The Lobos never scored again. The Falcons did.
“That was a big play in the game,” said Lobos coach Rocky Long. “But there was a lot of football left to be played. It changed the momentum for that moment of the game, but it shouldn’t have kept us from coming back and getting the momentum back on our side.
“At the end of the first quarter, we should have been ahead 21 to nothing.”
The turnover hurt the Lobos, but so did their performance on fourth downs. One failed attempt forced the Lobos to leave Falcon territory with a James Aho field goal rather than a TD. That gave UNM the 10-0 lead.
“Us turning the ball over caused us to lose the game and not being able to make fourth-and-short,” said Long. “You ought to be able to get fourth and half a yard and we didn’t do it three times. You don’t do that and turn the ball over, you’re going to lose.”
The Lobos only had a few days to adjust defensively to the Air Force triple option, but Long shrugged off the excuse of the short week since Air Force had the same hurdle.
“They had no advantage,” said Long. “They had the exact same number of practice days that we had. They just performed better than we did”
The loss dropped the Lobos to 4-5 on the season and 2-3 in Mountain West Conference play. The Lobos next play Utah on Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in University Stadium. The Lobos have three games left in the 2008 season and need to go 2-1 to become bowl eligible this season.
“If we win two of the three, we’re going to be bowl eligible,” said Long. “Whether that gets us in a bowl game or not, I don’t know.”
The Lobos and the Falcons both went into the game leaning on their ground attacks, but the Air Force Fly Boys definitely stayed away from an air attack. The Falcons went 1-of-3 through the air with the one completion by QB Tim Jefferson a 1-yard TD pass to tight end Travis Dekker, a La Cueva High graduate.
As Long pointed out, the Lobos also were hurt by their 1-for-4 fourth down conversion rate and the turnover battle that went to Air Force 4-to-3.
The killer turnover for UNM came on the opening kickoff of the second half when Glover Quin fumbled, leading to the Dekker TD and Air Force’s 17-10 lead.
The Lobos were led on defense by Clint McPeek, who had a career-high 15 tackles, Zack Arnett with 11 tackles and Jake Bowe with 10. Arnett also forced a fumble, his fifth of the season. The Lobos had to play most of the game without junior Ian Clark, who left after the third play of the game with a shoulder injury.
The loss was UNM’s fourth straight at Air Force and UNM has now lost four straight MWC road games. UNM lost three turnovers in the third quarter when Air Force grabbed the lead. Air Force scored 17 points off the four UNM turnovers.
The Falcons had only 228 yards in total offense, one yard passing. The Lobos ran for 212 yards with Ferguson gaining 107 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.
The Lobos probably couldn’t have scripted the beginning of the first quarter any better. The Falcons had three quick turnovers and UNM had a chance to throw the Falcons into a deep hole.
UNM gave up one first down to Air Force before forcing Air Force to punt. UNM took over at its own 20-yard line and used a 47-yard burst by Ferguson to get a first down at the Falcons’ 18-yard line. The Lobos lost their chance to score, gambling on a fourth-and-one when Ferguson was stacked up for no gain.
Air Force’s offense quickly let its defense down by fumbling a handoff that UNM recovered at the Falcons’ 11-yard line. The Lobos worked themselves into another fourth-and-one at the Air Force 1-yard line. This time Ferguson dodged a tackle off a pitch from Gruner and strolled into the end zone. Aho converted to give the Lobos a 7-0 lead.
The Lobos didn’t have to wait long to get the ball back. Blake Ligon picked off a Jefferson pass that floated behind his intended receiver. The Lobos took over at the Air Force 44-yard line. Again, UNM faced a pivotal fourth-down situation. This one came just short of the Falcons’ 23-yard line. A false start by UNM pushed the Lobos back five yards and Aho booted a 45-yard field goal to push the Lobos up 10-0.
UNM had 10 points off the two Air Force turnovers. The Falcons turned the ball over five times in 2007 in their 34-31 loss to UNM in Albuquerque.
At the 1:09 mark of the first quarter, the Lobos had their third takeover, another Air Force fumble. UNM came out and decided to strike deep. It worked. Gruner hit Jermaine McQueen on a 38-yard pass that McQueen outfought a Falcon defender to bring down.
That was when UNM was poised to throw Air Force into the 17-0 hole, but then the turnover factor made its dramatic shift. Gruner went left on a keeper and was hit hard. Kirchoff picked up the ball on the run. He bolted down the right sideline, made a cut back on Ferguson, who had angled in for the tackle. Kirchoff danced into the end zone to complete his 96-yard TD run.
A game that almost favored UNM by 17 points had now turned into a 3-point game.
The Falcons worked the scoreboard into a 10-all halftime score by testing the UNM middle and driving to the UNM 12-yard line. The Falcons’ drive stalled and Air Force had to settle for a 30-yard field goal by Ryan Harrison. UNM marched into the locker room with a tie, despite the Lobos winning the first-half turnover battle 3-to-1.
A former La Cueva High player scored the game’s next TD. Unfortunately for UNM, it was the lone La Cueva grad on the Air Force team, Dekker, who slipped behind the UNM defense to haul in a 1-yard push pass from Jefferson. The score was set up by the Quin fumble.
The Falcon score seemed to light a fire in the UNM offense. The Lobos marched. A key play was a Gruner first down on a 3rd-and-nine that he carried straight ahead to the Falcon 19-yard line. The Lobos were looking at a 3rd-and-one at the Air Force 10-yard line, but Ferguson was stopped at the line. The Lobos went for it on 4th-and-one. UNM tried a QB sneak with Gruner and was denied. The Falcons took over at their 10-yard line with 7:01 to play in the third quarter.
The Lobos gamble didn’t work out, but the UNM defense, behind a tackle for a loss by Arnett, forced Air Force to punt out of its end zone. The Lobos took over at their 49-yard line. UNM dodged a bullet when a Gruner pass went straight to Falcon Brandon Reeves, who dropped the gift.
UNM’s Tate Smith took over the huddle and again a Falcon was hit by a Lobo pass. This time the Falcon, Luke Yeager, did not drop the ball.
The Falcons took over at their 30-yard line with 3:16 to play in the third. The Lobos held the Falcons, but the Air Force pick helped the Falcons with field position. The Lobos fumbled the Falcons’ punt and the wrestling match at the bottom of the pile went to the Falcons. Air Force took over at the UNM 43-yard line. The Lobos’ defense needed to rally to this challenge. UNM didn’t need to fall behind by any more to the ground-control Falcons.
The Lobos pushed Air Force into a 4th-and-three, thanks to a savage tackle by DeAndre Wright on an Air Force reverse. But Jefferson went off tackle to get the first down. UNM held again, but the Falcons had worked themselves into a 43-yard field goal by Harrison. The Falcons were up 20-10.
UNM took over at its 13-yard line. Long way to go; down by two scores (10 points); clock running down.
UNM failed to move the ball and punted to Air Force with 10:03 to play. The Falcons took over at their 34-yard line looking to work the clock and their lead. Air Force did exactly that. The Falcons again found success running straight ahead. UNM finally held the Falcons, but a Harrison field goal with 2:30 pushed UNM into a 23-10 hole.
Game over.
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