COLLEGE STATION, Texas. — Texas A&M scored touchdowns on each of its first five drives to spoil an encouraging opening game effort by New Mexico as the No. 23/25 Aggies defeated the Lobos 52-10 in front of 97,560 fans.  The Lobos return to Albuquerque to open a two-game homestand, first against Tennessee Tech next Saturday in the home opener.

The Lobos trailed just 7-0 after a first quarter that saw UNM play keep-away.  UNM didn’t score on its opening drive, but it chewed up 6:46 of the first quarter.  Twice UNM converted on third down on the drive, going 2-for-3 on third down on the opening drive after ranking last in the country in that stat a year ago.

However, a 28-point second quarter was UNM’s undoing.  The Lobos were able to answer an Aggie touchdown on the first play of the second quarter with a brilliant 27-yard touchdown run by Jacory Croskey-Merritt, keyed by a huge downfield block by Andrew Erickson.

From there the rest of the half was all Texas A&M. Conner Weigman hit Noah Davis for his third touchdown pass of the half to make it 21-7, and he added one more sandwiched around a Le’Von Moss 2-yard run to make it 35-7.  The Aggies tried to tack on at the end of the half but Tavian Combs broke through the line and blocked a 48-yard field goal attempt by Randy Bond to keep it there.

UNM forced a punt to open the second half and then burned over seven minutes of clock time, culminating in a 27-yard Luke Drzewiecki field goal, but the Aggies answered with a fifth Weigman touchdown pass to make it 42-10 after three quarters.  The Lobo defense regathered after halftime and turned in a pair of sacks, including a 15-yarder for Kyler Drake.

Overall, the Aggies only totaled 411 yards, while UNM had 222.  That total is more than UNM had in UNM’s last two SEC games combined, as they had 210 yards combined against A&M in 2021 (122) and LSU in 2022 (88).  Penalties were a bugaboo in game one for both teams as UNM had 10 for 114 yards and Texas A&M had nine for 88 yards.

Dylan Hopkins in his first start for UNM was very good, going 16-for-25 with 115 yards.  Jeremiah Hixon played just three quarters and had six catches for 42 yards, and DJ Washington was also solid with four catches for 42 yards.  Croskey-Merritt led the rushing attack with 50 yards on 11 carries.

UNM’s offensive line, which struggled mightily in 2022, allowed just two sacks on the day and kept Hopkins out of harms way.

Postgame Notes

This was the sixth meeting between the two teams.
Texas A&M now leads 6-0
Texas A&M now leads 5-0 in College Station
Texas A&M leads 1-0 in Albuquerque
Texas A&M has now won six straight in the series, and five straight in College Station.

Starting lineup changes for UNM from published two-deep

Offense: Jeremiah Hixon was the WR that didn’t start.

Defense: No changes

*New Mexico’s captains were Dylan Hopkins, Tavian Combs, DJ Wingfield and Syaire Riley.
*New Mexico’s Bryce Santana carried the state flag of New Mexico onto the field and Marvin Covington carried the United States flag.
*New Mexico won the toss and elected to receive and defend the North goal. It marked the 30th time in 32 games under Danny Gonzales that UNM has received the opening kickoff.

TEAM NOTES:
*New Mexico’s opening drive took 6:46 off the clock. Only two drives for UNM were longer in the entire 2022 season (7:08 – TD against Wyoming and 10:56 – FG at New Mexico State).
*UNM’s touchdown drive of 88 yards was longer than any other drive the team had in 2022.  Its longest a year ago was a 10-play, 80-yard TD drive against Maine, and its longest against an FBS opponent was a 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game against Wyoming.  It was the longest drive since a 10-play, 91-yard touchdown drive against UNLV in 2021 to open the game, a span of 16 games.
*New Mexico dropped to 6-60 all-time against ranked opponents and 2-33 on the road against ranked foes.  It was UNM’s 25^th straight loss against a ranked foe dating back to October 25, 2003.
*The attendance of 97,560 was the fifth most to ever seen a New Mexico Lobo football game.

LARGEST ROAD CROWDS

ATTEN.        DATE                        SITE                                         SCORE
100,990          Sept. 8, 2012                Austin, Texas                          Texas 45, UNM 0
100,501          Sept. 24, 2022             Baton Rouge, La.                     LSU 38, UNM 0
99,051            Nov. 11, 2017               College Station, Texas            Texas A&M 55, UNM 14
98,780            Sept. 18, 2021             College Station, Texas            Texas A&M 34, UNM 0
97,560            Sept. 2, 2023               College Station, Texas            Texas A&M 52, New Mexico 10
93,875            Sept. 6, 1986               Knoxville, Tenn.                       Tennessee 35, UNM 21
89,792            Sept. 16, 1983             Knoxville, Tenn.                       Tennessee 31, UNM 6
77,622            Sept. 14, 2019             South Bend, Ind.                      Notre Dame 66, UNM 14
77,003            Sept. 8, 2018               Madison, Wisc.                        Wisconsin 45, UNM 14
75,902            Oct. 5, 1985                Lincoln, Neb.                             Nebraska 38, UNM 7
72,578            Oct. 21, 1989              Gainesville, Fla.                         Florida 28, UNM 21
73,887            Sept. 5, 2009             College Station, Texas           Texas A&M 41, UNM 6
66,086            Oct. 27, 1990              Provo, Utah BYU 55, UNM 31
64,740            Oct. 15, 1983              Provo, Utah BYU 66, UNM 21

INDIVIDUAL NOTES:

*DJ Washington became the first Lobo in school history to wear number 0 in a game.
*Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s 27-yard run marked UNM’s first score against a Power-5 opponent since 2019 against Notre Dame as UNM was shutout in 2021 by Texas A&M 34-0 and LSU in 2022 38-0.
*Tavian Combs blocked a 48-yard field goal attempt by Randy Bond to end the first half.  It was UNM’s first blocked field goal since Nahje Flowers blocked a Matt Mercurio 41-yard field goal attempt at San Jose State on October 4, 2019.
*Luke Drzewiecki hit a 27-yard field goal on his first attempt of the season.
*Tavian Combs in his first game back after tearing his ACL recorded a team-high 11 tackles and 1 pass break up and a blocked kick.
*Donte Martin had two pass breakups to give him 27 total PBUs in his career moving up to fifth on the career list.

PASSES BROKEN UP (CAREER)

He also moved up to a tie for eighth in career passes defensed, tying with former teammate Jerrick Reed II and Steve Bradshaw.