Reider: That was, uh, weird. Final thoughts and more from New Mexico’s 35-28 loss to San Jose State

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Final thoughts from New Mexico’s 35-28 loss at San Jose State:

1. That was … weird.

Weird in the sense that UNM played its worst game of the season — and only lost by seven.

Weird in the sense that the Lobos’ quarterback threw three interceptions — but probably didn’t play as bad as that suggests.

Weird in the sense that SJSU had its way with UNM’s defense — yet that might not be cause for major alarm.

Weird, weird, weird. After a game that was reluctant to provide UNM with a whole lot of absolutes, Jason Eck sat in a quiet room and casually offered one himself.

“We’re not quite good enough yet,” Eck said.

That it took as long as it did for that truth to reveal itself this season, in the context of a program starting anew?

That’s weirdly impressive — or impressively weird. Take your pick.

2. Of course, no player embodied the weirdness of Friday’s game quite like Jack Layne: Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave UNM’s junior quarterback the highest grade (81.5) of any player on the Lobos’ offense. He was credited with two big time throws, per PFF, and completed 70% of his passes, 78.4% when adjusted for drops. He managed a big, thankless workload, moved the ball and gave UNM a shot (however thin) at the end.

“I thought he competed his tail off,” Eck said.

He was also credited with four turnover worthy throws, per PFF. There were points where he held the ball for far too long, taking a few too many steps in the pocket. And he threw three interceptions, a major mark on a quarterback that always cites limiting turnovers as the first or second key in any game.

Eck’s view on the first one, picked off by safety Larry Turner-Gooden at the tail end of a first quarter on a flea flicker: “They were in man coverage and the guy who was (covering wide receiver Zhaiel Smith), who went on the reverse, just kinda zoned off and he was reading the quarterback’s eyes,” he said. “And then he just becomes a free player, comes over and makes a nice play.”

The second one, a pick by cornerback Jalen Bainer on a moon ball intended for wide receiver Keagan Johnson: “He gets hit right as he throws a deep ball, a deep 50/50 ball, and the kid makes a nice play,” Eck said. “We should’ve been better in protection, not giving up a hit. We had enough guys to protect it.”

And the third, another Bainer pick intended for tight end Dorian Thomas down the sideline: “The kid makes a nice break on the ball,” Eck said. “I think our receiver kinda fell out of it. He’s gotta come back to the ball a little.”

Of course, none of that helped UNM on a night where they ended up being a possession short. But I’ll give Layne as much of a pass as one can give on the second pick — he hit on that exact same throw last week to wide receiver Shawn Miller. And it’s the type of chance Layne’s said he’s needed to take to get the passing game going.

“I think when you have an aggressive OC, and you have an aggressive quarterback, things like that happen,” Johnson said. “It's a tough conference. It’s not gonna go your way every time. And I wouldn’t say he had a tough night. I think as an offense, we can all help Jack.”

That seemed most apparent on some of the plays where Layne held on to the ball one, two, three seconds longer than he should’ve. Then again, even if SJSU was covering well, he probably should’ve just got the ball out anyway.

Again: weird night. And a weird performance to get your head around. But I don’t think Layne lost this one for UNM.

3. If Friday provided one abject disappointment for UNM, it came from — of all places — the ground game. SJSU outrushed the Lobos 153-76, averaging 4.3 yards per carry to UNM’s 2.8.

Or, more bluntly: “We got outrushed by a team that really doesn’t even love to rush the ball,” Eck said.

Indeed. Over its first four games, the Spartans ran the ball an FBS-low 93 times. Friday, they ran it 36 times, seizing on UNM’s three-man front for 84 yards (4.9 per carry) early and forcing the Lobos to get another player in the box.

And why did the Lobos’ open in a three-man front? “You know you’re not going to get a lot of pressure the way their offense works,” Eck said. “So it’s tempting to say, ‘hey, why rush another guy who’s not going to get there? Let’s put another guy in coverage to try to stop their good receivers.’

“But it didn’t really hurt us in the passing game. It hurt us in the running game, with them bleeding us early and running the ball well.”

More glaring is UNM’s lack of production in the run game. Damon Bankston (nine carries, 51 yards, one touchdown) looked like far and away the most effective option Friday night. Touchdown aside, Scottre Humphrey (six carries, 10 yards) didn’t look like the back who earned preseason All-Mountain West honors. D.J. McKinney (four carries, 11 yards) and Deshaun Buchanan’s (one carry, five yards) workloads were probably a little too small to draw much of anything from.

It’s important to note UNM more or less abandoned the run game when they went down 35-17 in the third quarter. The Lobos went up-tempo and mixed in a few runs here and there and “we had to throw it a lot at that point,” Eck said.

But they didn’t run it well even before that point. This was supposed to be a running back room, through its depth and versatility, that would be able to wear teams down. That they didn’t really appear to even get close to that point makes it a relative concern heading into next Saturday.

4. And what was the game plan defensively? The way the Lobos put it, give quarterback Walker Eget different looks in coverage and try to force mistakes. Get stops in the red zone. Limit explosive plays.

UNM didn’t really do that. Eget was absolutely sensational, completing 26 of 30 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns with minimal pause and visible ease. SJSU was a perfect 4-for-4 in the red zone with no attempted field goals.

The Lobos did give up only four explosive passes, which halved last week’s total against NMSU. But that four included a backbreaking 70-yard touchdown pass to Danny Scudero that made it 21-7 in the second, a major tipping point for UNM.

“In the first half, I felt like we were right there,” linebacker Jaxton Eck said. “Like we were making the plays. It didn’t feel like, ‘oh, we can’t stop them,’ it just felt like (we needed to) tighten up our execution (and) we’ll be right there. But I feel like we just couldn’t find our footing all night.”

“Their plan ended up being better than our plan, and they executed it better,” Eck said.

I think it’s fair to note UNM didn’t play well defensively. It’s also fair to note there were some red flags for UNM heading into this one — SJSU is the type of team that was able to take away what the Lobos are good at, and target what they aren’t. The Spartans put UNM in a bind by getting them out of their base defense and minimizing the pressure they could bring.

Was it a bad matchup? There’s a lot that has to get cleaned up, but I’ll say yes.

As for Eck?

“Relative to the talent and stuff they had, I thought Idaho State was probably our weakest (defensive) performance,” Eck said. “I think this is a similar offense with better players. It's something we gotta do a better job of; making sure we have good answers when we play offenses like this.”

5. Through five games against a wide swath of opponents, UNM is averaging 3.5 points in the first quarter, 13.8 in the first half. The first mark is firmly in the bottom third of all 136 FBS teams; the second is slightly above average.

Whether he knows the numbers or not, Eck has seen enough.

“I got to do a better job getting our team to start faster,” he said.

UNM has earned praise this season for overcoming early errors and closing out teams in the second half. But the sluggish starts are becoming a bit of an issue, and no game made it as clear as Friday’s.

Snap counts

UNM’s offensive snap counts from Friday, per PFF:

-OL Tyler Lawrence (73)

-OL Kaden Robnett (73)

-QB Jack Layne (73)

-WR Keagan Johnson (69)

-WR Shawn Miller (63)

-OL Israel Mukwiza (60)

-TE Dorian Thomas (58)

-OL Richard Pearce (56)

-OL Malik Aliane (54)

-WR Michael Buckley (46)

-OL/TE Jaymar Tasi (35)

-RB Damon Bankston (32)

-RB D.J. McKinney (27)

-TE Simon Mapa (20)

-OL Nevell Brown (19)

-TE Cade Keith (12)

-RB Deshaun Buchanan (11)

-WR Zhaiel Smith (8)

-RB Scottre Humphrey (8)

-TE Aiden Valdez (5)

-WR Kader Diop (1)

That one snap was Kader Diop’s season debut.

UNM’s defensive snap counts, per PFF:

-CB Jon Johnson (64)

-LB Jaxton Eck (61)

-S CJ McBean (59)

-DE Keyshawn James-Newby (59)

-S Tavian Combs (53)

-DL Gabriel Lopez (51)

-CB Frankie Edwards III (44)

-DE Brett Karhu (44)

-S Caleb Coleman (43)

-DE Darren Agu (28)

-LB Mercury Swaim (28)

-LB Randolph Kpai (25)

-LB Ky’Won McCray (24)

-DL Brian Booker (24)

-S Drew Speech (20)

-CB Abraham Williams (20)

-DL Okiki Olorunfunmi (20)

-DE Xavier Slayton (17)

-S David Murphy (14)

-S Chris Gant Jr. (12)

-S Azariah Levells (6)

-LB Dimitri Johnson (6)

-DL Jalen McIver (5)

-DL Landon Williams (5)

-DE Elijah Brody (3)

-S Clint Stephens (2)

Those are injury-shortened snap counts for Dimitri Johnson, David Murphy and Abraham Williams; Eck said Friday he didn’t know the extent of said injuries after all three left the game early.

And one week after having 2.5 sacks and earning PFF’s lowest grade among UNM’s defense, Keyshawn James-Newby had no sacks and three pressures on his way to earning the Lobos’ highest defensive grade.

Notes and quotes

-UNM was flagged six times for 49 yards Friday night, bringing its two-game total to 15 penalties for 109 yards: “I think we gotta control what we can control,” Eck said of the penalties. “We gotta control our technique – I think if you’re sloppy with your technique, you’re at risk for getting called for holding penalties. And we gotta be a little more disciplined.

“I think we had some foolish ones that were after that play that just gets you beat. I’m very disappointed by those. I gotta do a better job coaching them.”

-PFF credited UNM with eight pressures to SJSU’s 12 on Friday night.

-A peek into what Eck was thinking at halftime down 21-17: “I thought we were in good shape,” he said. “I thought we were in good shape because, you know, I thought we kinda took their best shot. We’re down 14-0 early and cut it to three. I felt really good at halftime.”

And what went wrong after: “But then we come out and have a poor series – I think we have a penalty on the kickoff that gives us crappy field position. And then we should have had an automatic first down, but we have a late unnecessary roughness on the offensive line – I thought that kind of a self-destructive series, a lot of things that we can control that we made mistakes on that series more than (they’re) stopping us.

“And then they answer with a big drive to go up 10. So I think those first two drives in the second half kinda took away our momentum that we had going into halftime.”