Box Score | 2017 Season Statistics
LARAMIE, Wyo. — New Mexico turned the ball over five times in a forgettable first half and seven overall accounting for 35 points and Wyoming ended a three-game losing streak to the Lobos with a 42-3 win in Laramie. The loss was UNM’s third straight and it dropped UNM to 3-5 on the season.
The first turnover of the game proved costly. After both teams defensively forced a pair of punts, Lamar Jordan attempted a screen pass to Tyrone Owens, but Carl Granderson picked it off and rumbled to the 3-yard line, where Josh Allen sneaked over two plays later giving Wyoming a 7-0 lead.
It stayed that way until the second quarter when Tevaka Tuioti was intercepted on the next drive, leading to the first of three Austin Fort touchdowns. Fort would score again after Chris Davis muffed a punt, Wyoming’s third touchdown of the game. To that point, UNM’s defense had allowed just 94 yards of offense, but three short fields, two in the red zone, hurt.
After Fort’s third touchdown, Tuioti was picked off two more times, each leading to touchdowns, making it 42-0 at the half.
New Mexico struggled offensively on the road for a third straight game. The five interceptions marked the most since throwing five against Colorado State in 2001.
New Mexico didn’t get on the board until the fourth quarter when the Lobo drove all the way down to the Wyoming 11-yard line behind Lamar Jordan. However, on third down he was sacked, and Jason Sanders hammered in a 42-yard field goal to break the shutout. It ended a string of seven straight scoreless quarters on the road.
Along with the five interceptions, UNM suffered a pair of turnovers on fumbled punts. UNM’s defense allowed 42 points, but that was a bit of a mirage, as the defense limited Wyoming to just 75 yards rushing and only 309 total.
Postgame Notes:
This was the 70th meeting between the two teams.
Wyoming now leads 36-34
Wyoming now leads 19-15 in Laramie
New Mexico leads 19-17 in Albuquerque
Wyoming has one straight in Laramie
Wyoming has won one straight in the series
Starting lineup changes for UNM from published two-deep
Offense: Tevaka Tuioti (QB) for Lamar Jordan, Charlie Grammel (RT) for Chris Estrella
Defense: Jordan Flack (RUSH) for Rhashaun Epting
*New Mexico’s captains were Lamar Jordan, Blaise Fountain, Alex Hart and Jake Rothschiller
*Gabe Ortega of Rio Rancho, New Mexico carried the New Mexico flag onto the field
*New Mexico won the toss for the seventh time this season, and is now 7-1 on coin tosses. UNM deferred and kicked off for only the second time this season.
TEAM NOTES:
*The Lobos wore their anthracite helmets with white tops and pants for the first time this season.
*New Mexico’s offense has now gone 37 straight drives on the road without a touchdown. The last touchdown came on the opening drive at Tulsa. Since then UNM had nine drives against Tulsa, and 14 each against Fresno State and Wyoming. UNM does have four field goals in those 37 drives.
*UNM’s five interceptions were the most since throwing five against Colorado State on November 17, 2001, a 24-17 loss.
*UNM’s seven turnovers accounted for 35 Wyoming points.
*New Mexico now has turned the ball over 21 times this season, 10 interceptions and 11 fumbles.
*New Mexico’s five interceptions in the game tied UNM’s season total of five.
*The 184 yards of offense was the first time under 200 yards of offense since getting 127 against Texas Tech on September 15, 2012.
*UNM, which entered the game 129th out of 130 in third down conversions, went 6-for-18.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
*Corey Bojorquez averaged 53.7 yards per punt, with five 50+ yard punts out of six. He hit a 75-yard punt in the second quarter, his third-longest of the season, and his fourth 70-yard punt of the season. It amazingly was only the fourth-longest of his career.
*Tyrone Owens moved into 22nd place on the career rushing list for UNM.
*Jason Sanders hit a 42-yard field goal with 14:08 to go in the game, ending UNM’s scoreless road streak at 105:52. He is now 8-for-11 on field goals for the season.
*Evahelotu Tohi had a career-high with seven tackles.
Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Bob Davie
On throwing the ball more than usual:
“Yeah we thought they would be running the ends up the field kind of in a mess charge. We thought we would have to throw it around to win, but we’re past the point now of trying to be something we’re not. We’ve tried that a couple times now and it hasn’t been our best formula to win regardless of what the defense does. I think we’re done with that now – we’re not going to let this happen again. Seven turnovers, a targeting penalty that really cost us, we lost an offensive tackle, we lost another safety. It was a rough night. You can’t overcome seven turnovers. I was encouraged that our defense fought to the end but we have some soul searching to do offensively. Give Wyoming credit, they made some plays. They played really well on defense and that quarterback, you give him that many opportunities and we were discombobulated on a couple plays, it’s a tough night.”
On what he can tell the team now:
“Nobody wants to be in the situation we were in at halftime. No one wants to be in that locker room at the end of the game. But Wyoming was in the same position a year ago. We have to be able to respond. We’ve got some problems, three guys out on our offensive line right now. We’re not able to run the ball consistently right now. We have enough problems trying to get things solved to be thinking big picture. With all that said, give Wyoming credit. Their defense was outstanding, they took the ball away from us. That first interception was a dagger, on a screen past on 3rd and 7 and he runs it back basically for a touchdown. That’s a dagger right there. It was another learning experience that we are who we are. When we throw the ball more than 10 times and think we’re going to outscheme somebody or take advantage of these weapons we have at wide receiver it continues to backfire on us. We have some issues and problems we need to solve and we don’t need to look any further than that right now.”
On if he had seen a first half like that before:
“No, never have. And then we busted a couple coverages too, but we were a little bit out of sync with some injuries on defense. But no I’ve never seen it where it broke down to that point. Where you’re like ‘Oh my god, what’s going to happen here?’ It was a numb feeling and that was the challenge at halftime. Everyone is wondering what just happened and you realize you have to go play another 30 minutes of football. And that’s a situation you hate to be in.”