NMSU defense shines bright, but many questions surround offense in opening win vs Bryant
On its second and third drives, New Mexico State 's offense strutted its stuff against Bryant .
A deep 55-yard pass from Logan Fife to Donovan Faupel set up a needle-threading 24-yard touchdown pass to PJ Johnson III , and a 66-yard field goal drive gave the Aggies 149 total yards and a 9-3 lead. NM State was feeling good, and its fans who endured their team's painstaking offense of 2024 felt confident things would turn around.
Everything then came to a screeching halt.
NM State (1-0) gained only 156 yards for the rest of the game. The Aggies' defense was outstanding, and held the Bulldogs (0-1) off en route to a 19-3 victory on Aug. 30 at home. But NM State's sudden offensive regression will leave fans with questions heading into a Sept. 6 contest at 7 p.m. against Tulsa (1-0).
The Aggies' lack of offensive balance, which saw a good rushing offense carry a poor passing offense last season, was flipped on its head. The passing offense wasn't fantastic, especially without wide receivers AJ Williams III and TK King due to injuries. But the rushing offense hit a wall, as NM State tallied just 78 rushing yards and 2.4 yards per carry.
The Aggies temporarily improved their fortunes with Kadarius Calloway's 17-yard rushing score in the fourth quarter, but that was one of their only two rushes of over 10 yards.
"We struggled to get a good flow of the run game going," said NM State coach Tony Sanchez. "It was really hard yards the entire night. I think it was in that earlier part of the fourth quarter that we were able to start moving it a little bit, but it never felt like we got in a really good flow of running the football."
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Fife had his own struggles, completing seven of his final 21 passes for 95 passing yards after a 7-for-10 start to end with 227 passing yards. He threw a bad interception to begin the second half that halted momentum from a 33-yard Gavin Harris completion and missed a wide-open TJ Pride pass from NM State's 47-yard line that would've set the Aggies up near the red zone near the end of the third quarter.
Fife showed what he's capable of, but believes he didn't show it enough.
"I just have to be more consistent. That's the first thing that sticks out to me," Fife said. "I feel like, with how long I've played, I shouldn't have been that rattled. I wasn't rattled, but it was just ebbs and flows. Playing this position, you have to find that even keel, and the way I move is the way the offense moves. I gotta do a better job talking to these guys, being in their ear before every drive... and the rest will take care of itself."
NM State also went 4-for-18 on third down, which Sanchez attributed to many third-and-long situations after poor first-down plays. The Aggies failed to gain four yards or more on 57% of their 28 first-down plays, accounting for 16 total.
But if there's a silver lining for Sanchez, it's that NM State won. There's much to work on, but Sanchez says he's learned to "never take wins for granted."
"We're excited about that," Sanchez said. "I know just... watching the game, we have a lot of stuff we're gonna have to correct."
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Defense shows positive early signs
The Aggies' defense did anything but struggle, holding Bryant to 255 total yards and zero touchdowns.
The Bulldogs were held to less than 10 yards on seven drives and to just 3.8 yards per play. NM State earned an interception from Jakobe Campbell on a Brennan Myer deep pass in the fourth quarter and nearly earned a second after Sone Aupiu's strip sack earlier in the third quarter. However, Ezra Christensen touched the ball while out of bounds before fully recovering it.
They also pressured Bryant quarterback Brennan Myer with three sacks and eight quarterback hurries. Two sacks came from defensive end Jamall Thompson Jr., who also recorded a pivotal fourth-and-2 stop on NM State's 11-yard line in the third quarter.
"I think the number one thing tonight, and we gotta make sure that holds true week in and week out, is just generating that pass rush on the quarterback, because that's what helps the back end," Sanchez said. "When you've got to cover for a long period of time, it's hard. It breaks down. When we have that consistent pass rush, those quarterbacks, they've got to get through that three-read progression really fast and force them to throw the ball a lot faster."
This story was updated to correct a statistic.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU offense struggles vs Bryant despite defensive dominance
