Fresno State loses to last-place New Mexico, and shot at repeat Mountain West championship

Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford offered an apology to Bulldogs fans after a 25-17 loss to New Mexico on Saturday, which was wholly appropriate, and who knows if it will be accepted.

The Bulldogs were a 22-point favorite and more than that, with a victory, were in line for a return trip to the Mountain West Conference championship game. But afterward it was the Lobos celebrating a dominating victory at Valley Children’s Stadium in which they unpacked a ton of baggage.

New Mexico had not won at Fresno State since 1994. The Lobos had not won a game in November since 2016, losing 26 in a row. They had a 200-yard rusher for the first time since 2019 in Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who churned out 204 yards and two touchdowns on 21 plays. They had a 200-yard rusher and a 100-yard receiver in the same game for only the third time since 1959, with Caleb Medford catching six passes for 122 yards and one touchdown. The New Mexico defense also forced the Bulldogs to punt away the football on six consecutive possessions, which is something considering the Lobos had forced only 2.7 per game, ranking 132nd of 133 in the nation.

But the Bulldogs had a 14-3 lead and ended up absorbing a thorough beat down. Tedford also said this: “Give them credit, they did a great job. But like I just told the kids, we’re all responsible for this - players, coaches. We have to do a better job coaching and putting our kids in a position to be successful, somehow some way.”

Tedford and the Bulldogs’ staff clearly did not against New Mexico, which was ranked last in the conference and 126th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 35.9 points per game.

Fresno State started Logan Fife at quarterback in place of Mikey Keene, who had exited a loss at San Jose State last week with concussion symptoms and did not practice early in the week.

But the Bulldogs made almost no use of Fife’s ability in the run game — the quarterback scored the first touchdown of the game on a third-and-goal from the 1, scrambling to his right after linebacker Mihalis Santorineos got penetration through a play-action fake and block by running back Malik Sherrod.

Bulldogs punt on six series in a row

Fife had three other rushing plays and all of them came in a scramble mode when pass protection broke down, including one sack. Fresno State struggled against the New Mexico pressures and that limited some of the quarterback run game, but it wasn’t always the blitz blowing things up. The Lobos brought only three pass rushers the last time they chased Fife out of the pocket, late in the third quarter.

Fresno State averaged just 2.1 yards per rush, the fifth time this season they have been held to 3.0 yards or less. They struggled on third downs, converting only 4 of 13 (30.8%).

The Bulldogs’ inability to do much of anything with the football with any consistency overexposed a defense that for a second week, and loss, in a row struggled to get off blocks and to tackle. In that run of six consecutive punts from the second to the fourth quarters, the Bulldogs went three-and-out five times.

Keene entered the game against the Lobos in the fourth quarter, and failed to provide much of a spark.

Fresno State (8-3, 4-3 in the MW) generated only 63 total yards in the second half and 230 in the game, and New Mexico had a 40:41 to 19:19 advantage in time of possession. The Lobos rolled up 528 yards of offense, the first time they have hit 500 or more in a conference game since a loss to Hawaii in 2019.

The Bulldogs were banged up on both sides of the football, losing starting left tackle Jacob Spomer last week with a season-ending knee injury, and playing without defensive tackle Gavriel Lightfoot due to an ankle injury,

But, it was New Mexico (4-7, 2-5). Also, it was Senior Day. And, a spot in the Mountain West championship game was there, with UNLV beating Air Force earlier in the day. New York Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge was also among the 38,569 in the house, on hand along with former Bulldogs coach Mike Batesole to have their jersey numbers 29 and 44 retired in a halftime ceremony.

Tedford said the injuries are only an excuse.

“I feel bad for the seniors, because we had an opportunity for them to be undefeated at home this year, this whole team really,” Tedford said. ”We just couldn’t get anything going, couldn’t make any plays. We’d get something going and we’d take a big sack. We just couldn’t stop the run. I don’t know how many yards they rushed for, but it had to be over 300 yards. That’s the second week in a row we’ve give up 300 yards rushing. Just poor tackling. I mean, we have a chance to get people down and they break through the tackles or we overrun the tackles or whatever.

“It was not good football. I apologize to the fans for that performance. I’ve never seen us play that poorly.”

By the numbers

658: Rushing yards allowed by the Bulldogs in their past two games, with San Jose State rushing for 313 and New Mexico for 345. Fresno State had not allowed 300 or more yards rushing in back-to-back games since a 1-11 season in 2016 when Toledo rolled up 318, Tulsa had 336 and UNLV 364.

3: Touchdown drives or 90 or more yards for New Mexico - the Lobos went 92 yards on four plays, 93 yards in 10 plays and 97 yards in 10 plays for scores.

230: Total yards for Fresno State, 183 passing and 47 rushing.

53.8: Third-down conversion percentage for New Mexico (7 of 13), its highest against a FBS opponent since a 2020 victory over a Fresno State team that was playing with a severely COVID-depleted roster.

12: Penalties against the Lobos for a minus-112 yards.

5: Three-and-outs by the Bulldogs. That is the most for the New Mexico defense in a game this season. The Lobos had forced five total in their past four games combined.

2: Interceptions for the Bulldogs’ defense, bringing their season total to 16, most in the Mountain West and third in the nation behind only Liberty (19) and Oklahoma (18). The interceptions were made by linebacker Levelle Bailey and safety Dean Clark.

0: Fresno State points scored off turnovers.

1: Wild day for college football in New Mexico. Before the Lobos beat Fresno State as a 22-point underdog, New Mexico State went on the road and beat Auburn 31-10 as a 25-point underdog.