UNM rallies past NMSU to win Rio Grande Rivalry: Three takeaways

Behind four touchdowns from quarterback Jack Layne, New Mexico overcame a halftime deficit to beat New Mexico State 38-20 on Saturday at University Stadium.

NMSU (2-2) led UNM (3-1) 17-14 at the half. The Lobos went on a 24-3 run over the final two quarters to secure the program’s first 3-1 start since 2007.

Layne completed 23 of 30 passes for 303 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Here’s three takeaways from the Lobos’ second straight win over the Aggies:

1. James-Newby might be their best defensive player

To Hebron Fangupo, there’s a big difference between “good, great and unstoppable,” UNM’s defensive line coach said last week. And if he thought Keyshawn James-Newby was good before, his performance in a 35-10 win over UCLA might as well have been the 6-foot-2, 244-pound defensive end’s first foray this year into what might be considered great.

Did he wade into unstoppable territory Saturday?

“No,” Fangupo told the Journal after Saturday’s game. “ … He was supposed to do that today.”

“I thought he did a great job — we gotta clean up (him) not jumping offsides so much, because he had a few of those,” head coach Jason Eck said in a postgame press conference. “But he’s tough to block, man. He was ripping off the edge.”

“I felt like I left some out there, man,” James-Newby said in a postgame press conference. “ … There’s always things I can improve on.”

With all due respect to those perspectives, there were points where James-Newby didn’t look good or great, but plain unstoppable. His final stat line left him with five tackles, two-and-a-half sacks, two pass breakups and a slew of pressures against the Aggies and yet, those numbers might not have told the full story; NMSU struggled to find consistent answers for the Idaho transfer, a player with perhaps the highest ceiling of any on this defense.

In fact, his impact might be best reflected in the team’s final stat line: UNM’s nine sacks Saturday tied the single-game school record, with players like defensive end Brett Karhu, linebacker Jaxton Eck and defensive lineman Gabe Lopez getting in on the mix. James-Newby’s presence makes things a little easier for everybody involved, and will continue as long as he’s putting up quality reps.

That might be the most telling mark of a player who has the most compelling case to be considered this defense’s best player — and I’m not sure who’s all that close right now.

2. The Lobos got away with beating themselves

Eck says it often: you can’t let the Lobos beat the Lobos. And for at least one half Saturday, they beat themselves plenty.

The head coach let them know at the break.

“I said I think, ‘I think we’re the better football team, but we’re doing self-inflicted stuff to beat ourselves,’” he said. “We were losing the turnover margin, we had more penalties in the first half, I thought they were playing harder. We had some things we could clean up on our end, but I said, ‘we can do that.’”

They did. Even after a first half that included running back Scottre Humphrey’s first-quarter fumble — one returned 43 yards for a touchdown by NMSU’s Bernock Iya — and wide receiver Shawn Miller’s muffed punt in the second quarter, the Lobos responded in a big way. In the second half, UNM played relatively clean football in a game in which they needed to.

Like the UCLA game, it’s fair to note that the Aggies didn’t take full advantage of said mistakes — what if they did? And there won’t be much fussing over UNM’s success with penalties after this one: the Lobos were flagged eight times for 55 yards, a few of which stalled some promising drives.

Did it end up affecting the result all that much? No. But it ought to be heartening that UNM was able to play a relatively messy game and still win.

Doing it in this rivalry makes it mean that much more, too.

3. Offensively, UNM can win in more ways than one

At some point, UNM was going to run into a team that overloaded the box and committed to stopping the run. Eck knew it. Layne knew it, too. It was a matter of if, not when, for an offense that had won most of its games on the ground.

“Some team was going to say, ‘screw it’ and play all man (coverage) and get down,” Eck said.

That time came Saturday: NMSU loaded as many as nine players in the box on plenty of downs, an overt attempt to counter a rushing attack averaging 188 yards on the ground through its first three games. The Lobos did outrush the Aggies with 132 yards to NMSU’s sack-marred 15, but each carry went for an average of only 3.5 yards.

It wasn’t quite the run game UNM fans had become accustomed to.

The passing attack more than made up for it.

With its top-line receivers finally healthy, UNM put up a season-high 344 passing yards and generated six explosive plays (20 yards or more) through the air. There were also a few plays that went for 19 and 18 yards, so you could grade on a curve if you really wanted to.

Regardless, this was what UNM needed to show — that they could win even on a day the rushing attack was under fire. It didn’t hurt that wide receiver Keagan Johnson (five catches, 117 yards, one touchdown) looked like the WR1 the Lobos had expected him to be. That tight end Dorian Thomas (six catches, 79 yards, one touchdown) remained dynamic was key, too. And wide receiver Shawn Miller (four catches, 30 yards, one touchdown) had his best game as a Lobo, one that was a few catches away from being really good.

Layne, of course, was the driving force. For a player that’s said he doesn’t care about his own statistics, he certainly had one to be happy with Saturday.

“He’s playing the best football of his career,” Eck said.

UNM football beats NMSU in Rio Grande Rivalry: Photos