Lobos blow another early lead in loss to Wyoming
Oct. 9—ALBUQUERQUE — Lobos fans have seen this movie before, and, unlike most sequels, this one looked eerily similar to the original script — especially the ending.
For the second straight week, New Mexico blew an early double-digit lead to a Mountain West Conference rival, flailed at a comeback in the second half and ruined its own hopes of a recovery when quarterback Miles Kendrick threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown in the waning moments.
Wyoming rallied from a two-touchdown deficit to beat UNM, 27-14, before another small crowd at University Stadium. The Cowboys (4-3, 2-1) capitalized on the Lobos' poor special teams play and multiple breakdowns on defense to turn the tables on another strong start for UNM (2-4, 0-3).
It comes on the heels of last week's loss at UNLV, where a 17-point lead dissolved and a Kendrick interception return put the game away.
"It was a great college football game up until the final three minutes, when we made too many mistakes," said UNM coach Danny Gonzales. "It's who we are."
Bowl hopes fading
The magic number for landing a bowl bid is six. The Lobos need to go at least 4-2 in the back half of their schedule to reach the minimum threshold for postseason eligibility.
Starting with next week's visit to New Mexico State, four of the games in the six-game stretch will be played on the road. The lone home dates left are against Fresno State and San Diego State, with other road games at Utah State, Air Force and Colorado State.
Lagging turnstiles
Saturday night's announced attendance of 14,226 extended UNM's streak of sub-20,000 home games to eight. It marks the 23rd time in the last 25 home games dating to 2017 of fewer than 20,000 fans in attendance. The only exceptions were the last two home games against New Mexico State, games that drew an average of 27,870 fans.
UNM's average home attendance through four games this season is 15,205.
Maintaining a slim lead: Wyoming's win allowed it to keep a slight advantage on New Mexico in the overall Mountain West standings. The Cowboys are now 64-113 in conference games since the league's inception, a game and a half in front of the Lobos (63-115). The Cowboys also have the better overall record, 118-162 compared to the Lobos' 107-173.
Sub-.500 Kicker
Kicker George Steinkamp missed a field goal and had another kick blocked, dropping his career accuracy below 50 percent. Since his first appearance in 2020, he is now 9-for-19 (47 percent). His first attempt hit the upright (more about that below), while his second was blocked.
It worked!
Some say burning a timeout to ice a kicker is a waste of time and resources. In the case of Wyoming, doing just that right as the Lobos were lining up for a 46-yard field goal attempt at the end of the first half turned out to be the right call.
Steinkamp, a former Los Alamos High soccer star, wound up doinking his kick off the left upright to keep the score 14-7 at the midway point.
Injury timeout
Saturday's game kicked off at 5:07 p.m. and was immediately delayed for four minutes when Wyoming safety Wyett Ekeler was injured on the first play from scrimmage, a 13-yard run up the middle by Nate Jones.
That drive eventually produced a UNM touchdown to give the Lobos an early 7-0 lead. It also included their first fourth-down conversion when Jones picked up three yards on fourth-and-2. It left Iowa as the only FBS team in the country not to have converted on fourth down.
Starting fast
Speaking of that first drive, it was an old-school, smash-mouth affair, as the 16-play, 75-march burned 7 minutes, 8 seconds off the clock and featured 14 rushing attempts. It was the team's longest drive of the year by time.
Kendrick capped it with a twisting 2-yard touchdown run. He and Jones combined for 10 carries and 49 yards on the drive. The Lobos then forced a 3-and-out and promptly drove 67 yards in just six plays to make it 14-0.
The Lobos had possession of the ball for 10:15 of the first 11 minutes of the game.
New week, new look
The Lobos broke out the anthracite uniforms for Saturday's game. The dark gray helmets, jerseys and pants had red and silver highlights with red socks. If you're scoring at home, it's third different helmet color; they wore silver lids against Maine, UTEP and UNLV, with red domes for games against Boise State and LSU.
It's the sixth different uniform combination in as many games. What's more, it's the fourth different color of pants and third different color of jerseys.
Heads up
Another injury happened one snap before Wyoming scored its first points of the game in the second quarter when Cowboys running back D.Q. James was shoved out of bounds on the UNM sideline for no gain.
All of his forward momentum took him straight into a member of the chain gang. The impact sent the woman backward, and she landed on her back with her head hitting the turf. She was immediately helped out of the stadium and into UNM's training offices on the ground floor of the Tow Diehm Facility.
Passing fancy
Trae Hall attempted 101 passes in the COVID-19 season for UNM, a team-high for the seven-game campaign that saw five different players take turns under center because of injuries.
Hall made the change to wide receiver in 2021 and has caught 10 passes in the two seasons since. He attempted his first pass of the year in Saturday's game, taking a backwards toss from Kendrick before firing it downfield in a designed trick play. The Wyoming offense wasn't buying it. The ball landed incomplete.
Statcast:
The Lobos had more total yards (319 to 304), first downs (18 to 14) and total offensive plays (71 to 61) but were undone by a trio of costly turnovers and Kendrick's shaky 11-for-17 passing performance for just 107 yards. He was sacked six times.
Up next
UNM heads south to New Mexico State next weekend. The Lobos have won three straight against the Aggies (1-5).
