The picture was much the same for the Aggies, with costly turnovers and an Idaho defense that unleashed a familiar gameplan against NMSU: applying pressure on the Aggies offensive backfield.
"You can't turn the ball over four times and get stuck on 10 points," head coach DeWayne Walker said. "Don't care who you play. You don't have a chance."
The loss came against an Idaho program that's just as dire - both teams now stand at 1-5 on the season and in the bottom of the Western Athletic Conference.
"At this point, it's about improvement and defensively I did feel like we played better this week which I was happy to see," Walker said.
The defense did play well enough for the team to win, although offensively it was much of the same. NMSU did try to mix things up more - a couple trick plays were thrown into the arsenal as well as some screen passes, while the counter-trap run to Germi Morrison garnered some positive yardage (16 carries, 66 yards).
Still, many of the same hinderances were in place.
Quarterback Andrew Manley continued to struggle, which has been a theme over the past month of the season. Once again he was blitzed, hurried and hounded in the pocket, unable to avoid the rush and missing some open receivers during the contest. Manley finished the evening completing 28 of 45 pass attempts for 309 yards, a touchdown and
two interceptions.As he's done throughout the season, Walker defended his starting sophomore quarterback.
"You gotta look at the style of quarterback he is - a drop-back quarterback," Walker said. "He needs his supporting cast so he can do what he does best: throw the football."
Part of the issue has been the offensive line's struggles in protection and the unit continued its habit of too many false start penalties (flagged four times for such a foul on Saturday). That, and the Aggies squandered good field position during the contest.
"It's not good. Bye week coming up, I'm going to spend a lot of time on that side of the ball," Walker said. "It was awful across the board to be honest with you."
The Aggies kicked a field goal on their second possession and Idaho answered with one of their own (Trey Farquhar was a one-man wrecking crew for the Vandals, booting four field goals including one from 55-yards out and another from 53-yards away).
Idaho would settle on a punt late in the first quarter and return-man Austin Franklin had another gaffe fielding the ball, muffing it away and allowing Idaho to take possession at the Aggie 35. The next play saw quarterback Dominique Blackman go up top to Najee Level, who ran into the end zone as an NMSU safety fell down in coverage.
It was the second-straight week a poorly-fielded punt cost the Aggies - last week Franklin tried to field a slow roller that he couldn't corral, allowing Texas-San Antonio to take over. UTSA would quickly score a touchdown of its own and, similarly, the game's momentum seemed to shift.
"That was dumb on my part," Walker said of having Franklin return punts against the Vandals. "I told (special teams coach Keith Murphy), 'one more screw up, (Franklin's) out.' And he screwed us. It cost us seven points."
Idaho would eventually take a 17-3 lead and 20-10 advantage going into halftime - Manley hit Kemonte Bateman from 30-yards out for an Aggies second-quarter touchdown.
NMSU's final TD came on a quarterback-sneak with under two-minutes remaining, although the team didn't recover an attempted onside kick immediately following.
The Aggies will spend next weekend on their bye before jumping back into Western Athletic Conference play with a road game against one of the league's top teams, Utah State.
Teddy Feinberg can be reached at (575) 541-5455. Follow him on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg
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