Just enough.
Usually when that's said about a team, it's a bad thing.
For the UNM Lobos, it's a virtue.
Football is a game measured by yards, but really it's a game of inches. Saturday, the Lobos got the inches they needed to take a crucial Mountain West Conference win and settle into second place in the league.
Whether it was a fourth-and-inches converted into a first down, the inches to make a sack into a safety or the inches to make a completed pass into an interception, UNM managed to get 'em.
On paper, the Lobo defense turned in a commanding performance against San Diego State University - the fifth-most prolific offense in the country. The Aztecs struggled to gain the 183 yards they got.
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Quarterback Adam Hall was harassed all day, going just 18-for-35 for 153 yards, with one interception and three sacks.
The defense contained senior J.R. Tolver and Kassim Osgood, the nations No.1 and No. 3 receivers. Tolver finished the game with 4 catches for 34 yards. His average coming in was 138 yards.
Osgood, who was averaging 118 yards per game, finished with four catches and 71 yards - 39 of which came on a catch during a desperate late fourth-quarter drive.
The Lobos got the inches they needed to neutralize Hall, Tolver and Osgood. Inches turned a Tolver catch in the middle of the fourth quarter into a deflection by sophomore Lobo back Kevin Walton that turned into an interception by senior corner Brandon Gregory.
"I thought the defensive backs played a heck of a game and covered well enough so that we got pressure on their quarterback," head coach Rocky Long said.
The defensive backs kept Hall from getting even the sliver of space he needed to get passes in to the Aztecs receiving corps. That allowed the defensive line and linebackers to pressure Hall.
UNM's Billy Strother had the inches game down as well. The junior linebacker was able to get just enough of a push to block a SDSU punt in the first quarter that set up the Lobos' first touchdown. He and Ratcliffe had just enough speed to sack Hall in the end zone with 3:22 left in the game.
The inches game also helped him out on the Aztecs' final play from scrimmage, when he reached out to knock down a Hall pass inside the Lobo five-yard line and snuff out SDSU's final drive.
The Lobo offense shared the inches theme, too. With the game at a third quarter deadlock fading into the blustery Albuquerque night, the offense managed to put together a gutsy 10-play, 64-yard drive to take back the lead.
The drive was a blend of everything the offense did well during the game. Junior wide-out Adrian Boyd and senior Joe Manning ran several successful end arounds. Quarterback Casey Kelly threw pin-point passes to Manning and tight end Bryan Penley - the 25-yarder to Penley being a key play.
And above all, the Lobo offensive line pushed the Aztecs off the line, giving protection when needed and opening holes for running backs, including the inches-wide hole tailback DonTrell Moore needed to score the go-ahead touchdown.
The touchdown was redemption for Moore, who fumbled the ball to stop two promising UNM drives in the first half.
"Sometimes you've got to go in and put your head down and put your nose down and get six when your team needs it," he said. "We weren't going up top and weren't as explosive as we want to be but we did whatever we had to do to give our team a chance to win."
The Lobos managed 237 yards on offense - hardly spectacular. But the team also held the edge in time of possession, 37:08 to 22:52. For a UNM team that wins with defense and needs its offense to be consistent, it was just enough.
"Our guys just keep going," Kelly said. "We try not to look at the scoreboard, we try not to worry about how the game is unfolding. We just keep going. We know that sooner or later, if we keep playing hard and playing more physical than the other team - which has been our benchmark - that good things can happen."
Those good things include a post-season bowl bid, which the Lobos are still in contention for. Along with its next opponent, 5-5 Brigham Young University, UNM (5-5, 3-1) needs to win two of three to go bowling.
"One down, three to go," Boyd said. "We're trying to win out, that way there's not a question about where we placed at in the conference and hopefully we'll be going to the postseason, playing in a bowl game."
If the Lobos keep getting "just enough," the post-season may go from being inches out of reach to just in hand.
