UNM football notebook: A win is a win. But why was Saturday closer than expected?

Notes, quotes and observations from New Mexico’s 32-22 win against Idaho State on Saturday:

Mark it down, put it on the board, shout it from the rooftops: a win is a win.

And nobody was happier to get one Saturday than New Mexico, no matter how close it might’ve been.

“Adversity makes you stronger – unless it kills you and you lose,” head coach Jason Eck chuckled during a news conference Saturday. “But I thought it was great, and I really liked the way we responded and kept our composure and responded when maybe we were getting frustrated.”

But why, exactly, was a buy game against a now 0-3 FCS team closer than expected?

A look at a few reasons:

Explosive plays (or a lack thereof)

In games between an FCS team and an FBS team, or a Group of Five team and a Power Four team, the difference between programs is usually made clear in one aspect: explosive plays. Plenty of underdogs playing up a level have hung around and made it a game before the bigger, stronger and faster team uncorks a long run or deep pass to give them some breathing room – all before hitting on another big play to blow things open.

That didn’t quite happen for UNM on Saturday. If an explosive play is a run or pass that goes for 20 or more yards, the Lobos had just four. The lone explosive run was running back Scottre Humphrey’s 61-yard touchdown, a pivotal play in the game; the three big passing plays came courtesy of running back Damon Bankston’s 55-yard reception and a pair of catches from tight end Dorian Thomas that went 20-plus yards.

Noticeably, there were no big plays from UNM’s receivers: “We gotta get a few more explosives in the passing game,” Eck said. “We had Damon’s and Dorian had one (25-yard) gain, but I think we gotta try to get more explosives out of our receiving room.”

New looks defensively

Before Humphrey sparked the running game with his touchdown runs, there were stretches in the first half where UNM simply wasn’t getting the most out of its ground game.

Why? Eck said Idaho State simply threw some looks at UNM he hadn’t seen in the past.

“They were playing a lot (out) of a five-man front, especially against bigger personnel groups, and moving out of that,” Eck said. “A lot of times they were, like, slanting the (three-tech, a defensive lineman lined up on the outside shoulder of the offensive guard) and that got some penetration inside.”

“ … That’s stuff we gotta do a good job of coaching – obviously game planning (for) things they’ve seen, but we also have to have base rules so when we get something new, we don’t self-destruct.”

Some new offensive personnel, too

Even without starting quarterback Jordan Cooke, Idaho State found ways to give UNM’s defense issues. Eck said the Bengals’ decision to rotate backup quarterbacks Davis Harsin (17-for-26, 181 yards, one touchdown) and Jackson Sharman (11-for-13, 84 yards) made it a “little bit” difficult for the Lobos, if only because they didn’t have an immediate feel for what Idaho State’s plan was.

“We knew it was going to be two other guys playing, but just didn't have a lot of tape on them,” linebacker Jaxton Eck added Saturday. “We kind of heard that and some guys were like, ‘oh, their quarterback’s not playing’ – for me, that’s kind of frustrating because the offensive coordinator is gonna call a game differently based on who’s (playing) quarterback.

“But yeah, we just gotta be better. They kinda have a unique offense, so we were kind of running some new stuff. I think we can do a better job of all being on the same page, but we’ll correct it.”

Snap counts

UNM’s offensive snap counts (out of 65 total plays) via Pro Football Focus:

-OL Tyler Lawrence (65)

-OL Kaden Robnett (65)

-OL Richard Pearce (65)

-QB Jack Layne (65)

-WR Michael Buckley (60)

-OL Malik Aliane (54)

-WR Zhaiel Smith (50)

-OL Israel Mukwiza (47)

-TE Cade Keith (41)

-TE Dorian Thomas (31)

-RB Scottre Humphrey (29)

-OL Jaymar Tasi (24)

-WR Keagan Johnson (24)

-WR Shawn Miller (22)

-TE Simon Mapa (19)

-RB D.J. McKinney (18)

-RB Damon Bankston (15)

-OL Tevin Shaw (11)

-RB Deshaun Buchanan (10)

After only three receivers played last week, UNM ran with four after Shawn Miller returned from an undisclosed injury. Still no offensive snaps for fellow receivers Isaiah Blair and Kader Diop this season – curious to see if either makes their debut against UCLA.

And that’s some good run for freshman lineman Jaymar Tasi and none at all for Isaiah Sillemon; it’s unclear why.

UNM’s defensive snap counts (out of 72 total plays) via PFF:

-CB Abraham Williams (58)

-DE Keyshawn James-Newby (57)

-S Caleb Coleman (57)

-LB Jaxton Eck (56)

-S Tavian Combs (54)

-DE Brett Karhu (51)

-DL Gabriel Lopez (51)

-CB Jon Johnson (45)

-S Drew Speech (41)

-S C.J. McBean (38)

-LB Ky’Won McCray (38)

-DE Xavier Slayton (37)

-S David Murphy (34)

-CB Frankie Edwards III (30)

-DL Okiki Olorunfunmi (23)

-S Aaron Smith (23)

-S C.J. Johnson (18)

-CB Azariah Levells (17)

-DE Elijah Brody (16)

-LB Dimitri Johnson (16)

-CB Jahmir Torres (11)

-DE Landon Williams (8)

-DL Cody Thumlert (6)

-S Clint Stephens (5)

-S Chris Gant Jr. (2)

No sign of defensive linemen Brian Booker or Jalen McIver this week as UNM opted to go lighter up front against Idaho State. The Lobos also rolled with plenty of dime (one linebacker, six defensive backs) coverage, and that’s reflected here with Jaxton Eck dominating the snaps among linebackers.

As for UNM’s first game without free safety Austin Brawley? Drew Speech, C.J. McBean and Aaron Smith all rotated in for the Ohio transfer, with Eck saying he thought they played solid with no “critical” mistakes.

“We did a pretty good job of keeping the ball in front of us,” he added. “We got to keep coaching up our underneath droppers and coverage to get in zones and match routes a little bit better, because we had some seams in there.”

Notes and quotes

-No surprises here: running back Scottre Humphrey was UNM’s highest-graded offensive player Saturday, earning a 76.1 from PFF after rushing for 141 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. That yardage total was just one off his last game at University Stadium, a 140-yard performance in a 35-31 win with Montana State during last season’s Lobos home opener.

-14 total pressures for UNM on Saturday, per PFF, with Keyshawn James-Newby leading the way (7): “(Idaho State is) a tough team to rush the passer against because they get the ball out quick … We were able to get some pressures and have them feel it,” Eck said. “And sometimes that’s just as important if you can’t get home, making sure (they) felt that. I think that’s an area you wanna keep improving on and keep getting more pressure on the quarterback.”

-And that’s only four pressures allowed for UNM, one week after giving up 12. The Lobos did, however, give their only two sacks of the game on back-to-back plays late in the second half, on a drive UNM was very interested in getting points out of.

“That was a key time in the game, where that was the one blessing of them scoring pretty fast on that big play – we had plenty of time,” Eck said. “We had all three timeouts and a minute left and, you know, you gotta be able to throw it when people know you’re gonna throw it.

“That’s how you become a really good team: you gotta be able to run it when they know you’re gonna run, and throw it (when they know you’re gonna throw it). I thought we did a good job at times of keeping them off balance, but we gotta keep growing and improving our protection.”

-Idaho State Michael Shulikov’s 30-yard touchdown in the second quarter was one Eck had some questions about: “I’m anxious to see what the head of officials say on that one,” he said. “I think there might have been a little offensive pass interference, but we’ll see, we’ll see what they say. Obviously, my job is to coach, and not officiate.”

-UNM got flagged two times for 13 yards Saturday, one week after recording zero penalties: “I think it’s just who we want to be as a team – a disciplined, tough team,” Eck said. “And, you know, we gotta keep being a better execution team and a better do-your-job team, and a play-a-little harder team – we’ll see how the tape looks this time with effort.

“But I think that’s just us trying to be who we want to be. Being a disciplined team who responds, it’s tough.”

-What did Eck make of Saturday’s announced attendance of 17,639, the best crowd for a home opener since 2018? “I thought it was a good start,” he said. “I know we always have a good crowd for New Mexico State, but I hope that’s the only crowd in my time here that’s under 20,000.

“ … But I thought they were in the game. Late in the game, there was a few third downs where I kind of noticed it – ‘hey, it’s getting a little loud.’ I don’t think it was quite to the (point where) it really affected (Idaho State) or anything, but at least I noticed they were getting louder.”

-The defense ended up taking it out of Idaho State’s hands, but Thomas made a sneaky huge play in the fourth quarter, hauling in a pass for a two-point conversion to make it 25-22 with 7:17 left. The Arizona transfer now has 15 catches on 20 targets for 127 yards and two touchdowns, the most of any tight end in the Mountain West.

“I think he was down on himself when he fumbled (in the second quarter) on the tight end screen that was a nice play – he had a first down on the play, and we were gonna have a first down close to the red zone,” Eck said. “But (it’s) just a good lesson of, when something’s done you can’t pout about it or worry about it. You gotta move on. I thought he did a good job (of that) and made some plays for us down the stretch.”

-UCLA opened as a 14-point favorite over UNM, per Circa Sports.