Boise State avenged last season’s loss by thumping New Mexico 49-21 Friday night as its quarterback heated up for 368 yards and five touchdown tosses — in the first half alone.
UNM head coach Bob Davie said No. 19 Boise State is a handful for anyone to try to slow down. The quarterback-receiver tandem created problems and the Lobos, unable to match their torrid pace, played from behind almost the entire game.
“Looking at the game, it was what I was most afraid of — that we couldn’t cover,” Davie said. “It’s a difficult situation when it really doesn’t matter if it’s man or zone.”
The Lobo defense got off to a good start and held the Broncos to a three-and-out on its first possession. However, it would be one of the few times the team was able to get a stop.
Boise State was aided by a pair of facemask penalties as the team marched deep into Lobo territory on its next drive. New Mexico almost got off the field when Lobo safety Daniel Henry appeared to come up with a sure interception, but was unable to corral the ball.
Bronco quarterback Brett Rypien found Cedrick Wilson a few plays later to take an early 7-0 lead.
The Lobos responded with a four-play scoring drive to even the score. Quarterback Lamar Jordan converted on third down with a quarterback keeper to move the chains.
And on the next play, Tyrone Owens blasted through a huge hole up the middle and sprinted for a 62-yard touchdown run.
But then, things got ugly.
Boise State scored 21 points in less than nine minutes as the Lobos suffered from some familiar problems that have plagued the team throughout the season. New Mexico racked up big penalties, gave up big plays and got into big trouble.
On the possession following Owens’ touchdown, Rypien dropped a perfect pass into the hands of Wilson less than two minutes later for a 53-yard touchdown to go up 14-7.
On New Mexico’s next drive, Jordan, for the second time in as many weeks, attempted to pitch the ball forward, well after he had already passed the line of scrimmage.
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The play was ruled a fumble, but after review, the illegal pass negated the turnover and helped the Lobos avoid disaster — temporarily.
New Mexico was only able to get off an 18-yard punt by Corey Bojorquez, who has struggled at times this season. That mistake set Boise State up with great field position, starting at its own 48-yard line.
A defensive tripping penalty made the field even shorter and running back Jeremy McNichols ran in from nine yards out to increase the lead to 21-7 less than a minute into the 2nd quarter.
The Lobos, desperately needing a score to stay in the game, drove down the field and were nearing field goal range.
But Jordan missed an open receiver on a swing pass, which was thrown backwards making it a fumble. The Lobos recovered the live ball, but it killed the drive and New Mexico was forced to punt.
Boise State capitalized again and scored on a 54-yard bomb as Thomas Sperbeck ran right by the secondary for an easy pitch-and-catch to take a commanding 28-7 lead with 10:44 remaining in the half.
The Broncos were not content with a three-score lead, though, and kept their foot on the throttle, scoring twice more before halftime.
After a Lobos three-and-out, Rypien went back on the offensive and connected with Wilson as the duo hooked up to score for the third time on the day.
Then Boise State went for the kill, calling timeout with just under three minutes remaining to give its offense another shot to salt the game away.
Rypien did just that, dropping in a beautiful pass to hit Sperbeck in stride for a 35-yard strike. It was the QB’s fifth touchdown on the day, and gave his team a 42-7 halftime lead.
Jordan had a difficult time in the pass game. He missed on a couple of open opportunities, going just 2-10 for 16 yards and an INT at half.
He did end up with over 100 yards rushing, the sixth such game of his career. However, many of his big runs were wasted as Lobo drives stalled before getting in scoring range.
Boise State got its final score of the game on the first drive of the second half. Aided by penalties again, Rypien drove the team down the field and McNichols finished it off with a seven yard touchdown run.
That touchdown marked the seventh consecutive touchdown drive for the Broncos, as the Lobos could not find an answer on defense or a response on offense.
New Mexico trotted out redshirt sophomore JaJuan Lawson, who engineered a couple of 4th quarter drives with some deceptive runs. He notched his first career touchdown, plunging into the end zone on a six-yard score to cap a 12-play drive.
Then, after leading the team on most of another extended drive, Jordan re-entered the game and threw a 12-yard touchdown to Anu Somoye with 20 seconds left to make the final score 49-21.
The Lobos ended up with a total of 382 rushing yards, even without Teriyon Gipson, who was held out due to a hamstring injury. The team’s only turnover was an arguably meaningless interception on a Hail Mary at the end of the half.
New Mexico piled up 12 penalties for 88 penalty yards. Several of the infractions occurred on the first play of drives, giving Boise State a big advantage.
Conversely, Boise State was only penalized twice for 15 yards.
Davie said the penalties are a cause for concern, and the team will have to execute better moving forward.
The Lobos fell to 2-3 on the season and suffered its first conference loss (1-1). The team will need to correct many phases of the game before heading to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas to face Air Force on Saturday.
Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country, football, tennis and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
