Utah State played well enough defensively Saturday night to beat New Mexico at rainy Romney Stadium.
Too bad a mistake-prone offense didn't come along for the ride.The Lobos pulled out a 25-22 victory on a 1-yard touchdown by Graham Leigh with 2:20 left. The
victory gave New Mexico its first 4-0 start since 1984, while the Aggies fell to 2-2
The Aggies came up with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, courtesy of the defense, to apparently pull out a big victory over a Western Athletic Conference foe.
However, a fumble by Demario Brown with 4:23 left set up the Lobos at the USU 25. Five plays later, Leigh sneaked in from the one.
Trailing 17-10, the Aggies scored with 12:59 left when defensive tackle Ben Crosland intercepted a Lobo pass and ran 27 yards for a touchdown. However, the Ags were penalized for excessive celebrating, and after the 15-yard penalty Brad Bohn's PAT try sailed wide, leaving the Aggies down one, 17-16.
Then Crosland helped cause a fumble in Lobo territory that led to a 4-yard touchdown run by Brown with 5:22 left. A pass try for two points failed and that came back to haunt the Ags a few minutes later.
The USU defense held as USU's Vashon Garmon intercepted a pass by Leigh at the 25-yard line. But on the very next play, Brown was hit by Bill Borchers and coughed up the ball.
The Aggies ended up with 25 first downs to 18 for UNM, and the teams were nearly dead-even in total offense, with New Mexico finishing with a slight 289 to 283 edge in total yards. Once again the Aggies had a horde of penalties, mostly on offense, with 14 for 156yards.
Brown finished with 124 yards on 26 carries in his first game back after knee surgery, while Sauk was 15 of 35 for 172 yards. However, Sauk lost 59 yards as he was sacked seven times by the UNM defense.
A favorable exchange of punts late in the third quarter helped the Lobos break a 10-10 tie. UNM's Jason Bloom got off a 68-yard punt that ended up on the Aggie 1-yard line. The Lobos held and the Aggies were only able to get off a 30-yard punt. Three plays later, Graham Leigh found Pascal Volz all alone down the left sideline for a 29-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-10.
Then came Leigh's ill-advised screen pass, which Crosland snagged at the 27 and headed to the end zone down the right sideline. The Aggies jumped around in the end zone in jubilation, but it was too much for the WAC officials, who had called a similar penalty on the Aggies late in last week's game with Colorado State.
Crosland's hit of Leigh as he was pitching the ball on the Lobo option led to a fumble recovery by Caleb Smith, his third of the night. Then the Ags methodically moved down to score in 12 plays.
Even after the Lobos scored the winning touchdown and two-point conversion, the Aggies had a chance to win. They got new life with a holding call on a 4th down failure and with 1:07 left Matt Sauk hit a wide-open Steve Smith streaking for the end zone, only to see the ball bounce off Smith's fingers.
The two teams battled to a 10-10 tie at halftime as the Aggies came back from a slow start to tie it late in the second quarter. Brown romped untouched up the middle for a 35-yard touchdown with 3:59 left on a 3rd-and-2 play.
The Aggies had gotten off to a shaky start, not being able to establish any sort of offense in the first quarter. By the end of the period, they had minus 1 yard rushing on 10 carries and just 46 yards through the air.
The Lobos opened the scoring on a 37-yard field goal by Colby Cason midway through the first quarter. Then on their next possession, they drove to the 1-yard line only to fumble with Caleb Smith getting his second recovery of the contest at the Aggie 9.
However, two plays later, Blake Irwin burst through the line, hogtied Sauk at the goal line, then pounced on the ball in the end zone after Sauk fumbled.
The Aggies came back with a 13-play drive to score on a 32-yard field goal by Brad Bohn. The Ags had gotten down to the 4-yard line, but Sauk was sacked by Ryan Taylor on a 3rd down pass play.
GAME NOTES: The Aggies take a week off before returning to action Oct. 3 against BYU in Provo . . . The Aggie penalty parade continued as they broke the century mark for the fourth straight week, amassing 156 yards . . . A crowd of only 15,112 turned out on the cool, rainy evening . . . After temperatures of 78 and 80 the previous two weeks, it was just 50 degrees at kickoff . . . The Aggies and Lobos used to be regular opponents in the old Skyline Conference but hadn't played since 1966 before Saturday.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Big West standings
Conf. Overall
Team W L W L
Utah St. 0 0 2 2
Idaho 0 0 2 2
N. Texas 0 0 2 2
N. Mexico St. 0 0 1 2
Boise St. 0 0 1 3
Nevada 0 0 1 3
Saturday's games
New Mexico 25, Utah St. 22
Boise St. 24, Weber St. 7
Southern Miss 35, Nevada 19
Central Florida 41, Idaho 10
North Texas 30, Texas Tech 27