In the first three games of the season, the University of New Mexico football team has demonstrated signs of brilliance and disaster, showing its ability to both make and give up the big plays.
From the first game of the season against North Carolina State to last week's heartbreaker, UNM has shown very few signs of continuity.
Head coach Rocky Long agrees that the Lobos have had a hard time in developing consistency.
"I think the entire team needs to be more consistent. I think we're inconsistent in every aspect of the game," Long said. "Sometimes we throw it well, sometimes we catch it well, sometimes we throw it bad, sometimes we drop passes."
College football has no preseason and in every first game mistakes are sure to be made.
That was apparent when UNM went to North Carolina to play the Wolfpack. In the first half, it seemed like the Lobos could do nothing right. In some respects they were lucky to get out of the half trailing by only 21 points.
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aThe team could get virtually nothing done on offense. UNM receivers couldn't get open against a speedy N.C. State secondary and the running game was close to nonexistent. On defense, the Lobos looked slow and confused.
In the second half, however, things changed. The Lobos started working the ball down the field thanks mostly to patient but effective play from quarterback Casey Kelly and the speed of tailback Quincy Wright.
In the second half of that game, the Lobos proved that they could play with an ACC team by matching the Wolfpack score for score.
By the end of the game, it was obvious that UNM had a lot of things to work on, but it also showed some flashes of brilliance.
"Going into the season, I had no idea how it was going to come out," Long said. "I was a little surprised we didn't play North Carolina State closer."
After the loss to NCSU, the Lobos looked to make quick work of Division I-AA Weber State University in its home opener.
At the beginning of the game it looked like it would do exactly that. On the first play from scrimmage, the Wildcats fumbled and UNM recovered deep in WSU territory.
On the next play, Wright promptly ran into the end zone just 19 seconds into regulation. It looked like it was going to be an easy blowout for the Lobos.
In reality, that was not the case.
UNM struggled to stop the passing game of Weber State and subsequently found itself trailing 10-7. Luckily for the Lobos, Wright had a school record of 265 yards on the ground and Dwight Counter returned a punt for a touchdown to ultimately give UNM the win.
On the bright side, the Lobos were able to run the ball at will, but the passing game threw for under 100 yards. Once again, UNM was unable to put a full game together.
As far as consistency goes, the Lobos improved slightly last weeks but were still unable to find their rhythm for 60 minutes. Air Force scored first on a 56-yard touchdown run by halfback Leotis Palmer.
Later in the first half, the Falcons used a trick play for another long touchdown and it looked like the Lobos might give in.
UNM bounced back though, clawing its way to a tie by blocking a punt and scoring on a screen play where Wright broke a couple of tackles and scored from 50 yards out with seconds left in the first half.
The offensive game was much better as Kelly was able to open up the field. On the other side of the ball, the defense was lackluster and could not stop Air Force's potent triple option offense.
"Right now we're not as consistent or dominant on defense, so other teams are scoring more points," Long said. "So that means our offense has to be more productive."
In the second half, UNM's defense clamped down holding the Falcons to only seven points.
On the other hand, the Lobos could not get going on offense and were also held to seven points.
UNM played well enough for a tie but not well enough for a win. In the end, the Lobos were defeated in overtime and overall inconsistency was the crucial element that caused the loss.
The Lobos next play Baylor University (1-1) at University Stadium Saturday at 6:05 p.m.
