Fresno State suffers another loss to a losing team, can’t stop New Mexico run game

Fresno State is suddenly playing some of its worst football of the season down the stretch.

Can’t do much on offense — again.

Can’t stop another opponent from running all over them while on defense — again.

And for the second straight week, the Bulldogs lost to a team with a losing record entering the game — this time falling 25-17 to New Mexico on Saturday during a home finale at Valley Children’s Stadium.

A week ago, Fresno State was upset 42-18 at San Jose State.

With those back-to-back blows, the defending conference champion Bulldogs were knocked out of the race to play in the Mountain West championship game.

The Bulldogs (8-3, 4-3) currently occupy sixth in the Mountain West following the loss to the Lobos (4-7, 2-5). Fresno State had been in second place prior to playing San Jose State, which had a 4-5 overall record when the Bulldogs played the Spartans.

Where have things gone wrong?

Quarterback Mikey Keene missed time last week due to injury then didn’t play until the fourth quarter Saturday. Instead, Bulldogs coach Jeff Tedford went with quarterback Logan Fife, who had success against New Mexico a year ago while leading Fresno State in a 41-9 victory.

Fife struggled mightily this time, especially in the second half when Fresno State mustered just 4 total yards under his watch before he was removed.

Keene didn’t do much, either, as both quarterbacks passed for no more than 125 yards and failed to throw a touchdown.

But perhaps the more pressing issue was Fresno State’s struggles to stop the run — again.

Fresno State allowed New Mexico to rush for 345 yards on 51 carries (6.76 average) and scored two touchdowns on the ground.

With the Lobos ground game working so effectively, New Mexico had the ball twice as long as Fresno State with a time of possession advantage of 40:41 to 19:19.

New Mexico running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt had 204 rushing yards by himself.

Entering the game, New Mexico produced 163 rushing yards per game and 4.8 yards per carry.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t a complete surprise that the Lobos ran the ball early and often against the Bulldogs.

In the previous week against San Jose State, Fresno State gave up 313 rushing yards on 43 carries (7.28) and two touchdowns.

The New Mexico victory marked the first time that the Lobos won at Fresno State since 1994.