Losing an honorable-mention All-American player is a tough task for any team to overcome. When the player in question is Carmen Messina, who led the NCAA in tackles last season, and the team is New Mexico, which won one game in 2009, it exacerbates the problem to an insurmountable level.
New Mexico had held its own in the first few minutes against Oregon on Saturday afternoon, intercepting Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas on the game’s inaugural drive, only giving up a 20-yard touchdown drive after a bad snap on a punt and forcing a fourth down on Oregon’s third drive. However, on a third down play with less than five minutes left in the first quarter, Messina injured his left angle and had to be assisted off the field by New Mexico’s trainers.
New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley said the injury to his team’s star player left a leadership void his team did not fill for the rest of the game.
“Anytime you lose the leader of your defense like that, it takes away from some of the leadership on the field, but guys have to step up and step in,” Locksley said.
On the ensuing fourth down and three play on the Oregon 41, the rest of the game changed. Duck running back Kenjon Barner took a handoff for four yards and a first down. New Mexico never came close to containing the Oregon offense after that, suffering an eventual 72-0 defeat at the hands of the Ducks.
Locksley attributed the loss more to his team’s failure to perform than to Oregon’s performance.
“This is the first game of a long year for us. We’ve got to give Oregon tons of credit, they’re a good football team. Going into this game, what we talked about as a staff and as a team was to make them beat us, and we really helped them. When we turn it over five times and we give up two punt returns for touchdowns,” Locksley said, “we didn’t help our cause very much today.”
New Mexico continued its streak of first-day futility, finishing its fifth consecutive season opener without a touchdown. By the end of the first quarter, the Lobos had surrendered 28 points, while only achieving 25 total yards on four full drives.
Oregon ran up a school-record 720 total yards along with its Autzen Stadium-record-tying point total.
New Mexico’s offense fared no better than its defense in the game, giving up two interceptions, three lost fumbles and four turnovers on downs.
Lobo quarterback B.R. Holbrook, who made his starting debut Saturday, observed that turnovers were the main cause of his team’s blowout loss. Holbrook completed 11 of 24 passes for 70 yards and threw two interceptions in the defeat.
“You can’t win against a good high school team when you turn the ball over six or seven times,” Holbrook said.
Locksley was also disappointed with his team’s turnover total.
“We did some things that were very uncommon, things that we hadn’t done: the lateral for a fumble, the quarterback working the wrong side for an interception,” Locksley said.
The Lobo rushing attack was dormant Saturday. Running backs Demond Dennis and James Wright, who rushed for 774 combined yards and averaged more than five and a half yards per carry in 2009, were held to 19 yards on 22 carries for the game. At one point in the first half, the two had combined for negative-10 yards on 12 carries. Dennis also fumbled twice.
Locksley was not impressed with his team’s 25-yard performance in the ground game.
“We didn’t execute. In the run game, unfortunately, if one guy isn’t on the right person, it makes for a long day,” Locksley said. “We have to be able to run the ball to be able for us to help our defense and for us to help our team.”
Even New Mexico’s special teams was not exempt from the poor overall performance, surrendering two punt return touchdowns to Duck sophomore cornerback Cliff Harris in the second quarter and having a long snap sail past punter Ben Skaer in the first quarter.
Ben Jacobsen, New Mexico’s long snapper, blamed himself for that play, which left the Ducks only 20 yards away from the end zone.
“My play opened the momentum against us,” Jacobsen said. “I take full responsibility for that snap, no doubt about it.”
Locksley even reserved some blame for himself, given the enormousness of his team’s defeat.
“Nothing worked today, it was definitely disappointing, and for me, it starts with me,” Locksley said.
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