Lobos Stun Wyoming

The New Mexico Lobos snapped their five-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon with a 14-3 win over the Wyoming Cowboys in Laramie.

New Mexico got a touchdown pass from Isaiah Chavez to Trace Bruckler and a touchdown run from Aaron Dumas to provide the 14 points. The Lobos defense held Wyoming to 255 yards of offense and forced two turnovers to help propel UNM to victory.

Chavez. Starting his first game on the season, finished 10-for-11 for 112 yards and the one touchdown, he also added 49 yards on 16 carries.

Dumas had only 35 yards on 12 carries, but his touchdown, which gave UNM the 14-3 lead, was his first career score. The Lobos used a plethora of backs to rush for 147 yards on 44 carries against Wyoming. That 147 yards was the second most rushing yards this season and the most since the 123 yards they ran for against UTEP.

Takeaways:

With the win the Lobos move to 3-5 on the season and 1-3 in the Mountain West Conference. It is also the Lobos’ first road win in 16 games, breaking the longest streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Isaiah Chavez continued his lore with the win. Chavez is now 3-0 as a starter for UNM, including two victories over the Wyoming Cowboys. Chavez’s story is pretty amazing considering he was the fifth string quarterback entering last season. Chavez had not seen action prior to last week’s game against Colorado State, when he came in for a couple of drives late in the game.

With Chavez playing well and Terry Wilson recovering from an elbow injury, the coaching staff will have themselves and interesting situation when the Lobos return to the field on November 6^th when they host UNLV.

On defense, the Lobos did just what was needed to get the win. They pressured both Sean Chambers, and later Levi Williams, and forced them into mistakes that benefitted UNM. Chambers and Williams combined for just 147 yards passing while picking up two sacks and forcing those aforementioned turnovers. Even better was the rush defense. The previous two games against UNM, Wyoming running back Xazavian Valladay had gone for over 100 yards in each. In this contest, Valladay was held to 41 yards on 14 carries. That kind of stifling helped the Lobos continue to pressure Chambers and Williams, knowing they had no ground game to rely on.

Up Next:

New Mexico is off next weekend. They will return to action on November 6^th against the UNLV Rebels in Albuquerque.

UNLV is winless on the season, so it is a game that the Lobos can win. As of now, UNLV is 0-7 and 0-3 in the MWC. The Rebels will take on Nevada this coming weekend before coming to Albuquerque the following weekend.

The game on November 6^th with UNLV will be streamed on Stadium and can be heard on the Lobo Radio Network. Gametime will be at 5:00 p.m. at University Stadium.