Nov. 15, 2008
Lobo Football
Saturday: Colorado State 20, Lobos 6
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
In a season long on frustration and too often short on touchdowns, maybe it was unavoidable that the University of New Mexico would find a lot of frustration and no touchdowns in their season-ending 20-6 loss at Colorado State.
“We (defense) kept it out of the end zone a couple of times, that gave us a chance to win,” said Lobos coach Rocky Long. “But, as most of the season has been, we just couldn’t punch it in when we got down there close.
“We moved the ball pretty well. We just couldn’t score any points.”
The loss at Fort Collins, Colo., ends the Lobos season with a 4-8 record, 2-6 in the Mountain West Conference. The win raised CSU to 5-6 (3-4 MWC) and a win next Saturday at Wyoming will make the Rams bowl eligible and possibly bring CSU to Albuquerque for the New Mexico Bowl.
The Lobos’ frustration on offense was accentuated by scoring only six points and no touchdowns against a Rams’ team that had been allowing 33.2 points and 410.9 yards per game. The Lobos ended the season scoring four touchdowns in their final four games – none against the Rams.
“We have really struggled trying to score,” said Long. “At times (vs. CSU), we moved the ball pretty well between the 20s, as they say, and then we get down in the red zone and we make mistakes or we don’t make a play. We end up kicking field goals or ending up going for it on fourth down and not making many of them.
“The defense wasn’t good enough to win today. The offense wasn’t good enough to win today, but in order to win in this day and age you have to score a lot more points than we’re scoring.”
When you don’t score touchdowns, it’s difficult to win. It’s also difficult to win when you allow the other team’s tailback to run for 127 yards. That’s the total CSU’s Gartrell Johnson ended with. He is the first running back this season to get more than 100 yards on the UNM defense. The last runner to crack that 100-yard barrier did it on Nov. 10 of 2007; also CSU’s Johnson.
“I thought we let them run the ball way too well,” said Long. The UNM coach said he moved more defenders up to the line of scrimmage trying to contain Johnson, but the shift in defense left UNM in man coverage in the backfield. He said his defensive backs didn’t make enough plays.
As Long noted, the Lobos moved the ball OK. UNM had 359 yards in total offense to 389 yards for the Rams. Senior Rodney Ferguson ran for 85 yards and red shirt freshman quarterback Brad Gruner threw for 204 yards, going 23-of-39. He ended the season with three TD tosses in 184 attempts.
The Rams’ counterparts at those positions outplayed the Lobos. Johnson had 127 yards on the ground and senior Billy Farris threw for 237 yards, 16-of-27 with one TD. The win over UNM ended a two-game losing streak for CSU and ended a three-game skid to the Lobos. UNM lost five of their final six games.
A key play for UNM in the first half was when the Lobos drove from their 24-yard line to the Rams’ 12-yard line. The drive started with 1:31 left in the first half and ended with no time left on the clock and no UNM points off the drive.
The Lobos’ last play on the impressive march came with 5 seconds to play. The Lobos were trying to squeeze out one more shot at the end zone prior to bringing Aho out for a field goal attempt. Gruner held the ball a bit too long in the pocket and then lofted a pass out of the end zone as time expired.
“That’s my fault,” said Long. “We were trying to get too much done with too little time.” Long said Gruner was told to try a quick pass if the Rams were in man coverage and to quickly throw the ball away, if CSU was in a zone.
“It wasn’t man. It was zone and he held the ball way too long,” said Long.
The Lobos won the turnover battle by intercepting Farris twice, but UNM scored only three points off those two picks. Neither team lost a fumble. CSU won the time of possession battle controlling the ball for 35:39 to 24:21 for the Lobos. The Rams also converted 7-of-12 third-down attempts.
CSU out gained UNM on the ground 171 yards to 164, but the Rams had 13 more carries. CSU averaged 14.8 yards per completion (16) to 8.9 yards per completion (23) for the Lobos. The average gain-per-play ended up favoring CSU, 5.6 yard-per-play to 5.2 yards-per-play for UNM.
Seniors Zach Arnett and Clint McPeek led UNM in tackles with eight and seven, respectively.
The game was the last at UNM for 21 seniors. “They had to go out on a sour note and that’s sad,” said Long.
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