For Bulldogs, quarterbacks extending drives top things to watch at New Mexico

The Fresno State Bulldogs are back out on the road on Saturday, playing a Mountain West football game at New Mexico.

The Lobos will be playing only their second home of the season but have scored 62 and 43 points at Dreamstyle Stadium, beating Incarnate Word and losing to Liberty.

The Fresno State defense has dominated its first two conference opponents, winning at Nevada 21-3 and against Wyoming 27-3, and the Bulldogs are leading the conference in total and scoring defense. The Wolf Pack and Cowboys just could not sustain a drive against Fresno State, but New Mexico could have a way to make plays, stay on the field and put up some points.

That would be Sheriron Jones, and it is notable that the Lobos are fourth in the conference on third-down conversions, at a 44.6 percent clip.

That leads the things to watch.

Quarterback run game

In two Mountain West games, the Bulldogs defense has not yielded much. Opponents have scored a total of six points. In those two games, the defense has been on the field for 25 series and allowed just 35 first downs, three of them by penalty.

Sustaining drives has been tough for those offenses.

But the Bulldogs have given up some plays on quarterback runs.

Nevada had 21 first downs against the Bulldogs, including seven rushing. Quarterback Cristian Solano had four of those seven first downs.

Wyoming had 14 first downs against Fresno State, including six rushing. Quarterback Tyler Vander Waal had three of those six first downs.

Two games and 13 rushing first downs, with nine of those plays made by quarterbacks.

That could come into play on Saturday at New Mexico with Jones, who is second on the team with 181 rushing yards and will run it off zone reads, designed draws and scrambling away from pass-rush pressure.

That is a handy skill working behind an offensive line that allowed three sacks last week in a 20-18 loss at Colorado State.

The quarterback runs have not hurt the Bulldogs much given the outcome of those drives; more of a nagging inconvenience. But if there is an exploitable spot against the defense, that might be it.

Fresno State has allowed just 3.7 yards per play in its conference games and, while still early, that’s rivaling the most dominant defense in Mountain West history.

That would be TCU, which in 2008 allowed just 68 points in eight conference games, eight touchdowns, eight extra points and four field goals, 8.5 points per game.

The Horned Frogs that season allowed 3.5 yards per play.

Stopping the sluggish starts

Fresno State has had some rough starts offensively in conference play, which could have something to do with a lack of pop coming out of the locker room.

The atmosphere at Nevada didn’t help — the Bulldogs were on the road, it rained through pre-game and was chilly, and there were not many fans in Mackay Stadium. Coach Jeff Tedford said afterward the Bulldogs needed to create that on their own, if necessary, and it appears that will be the case home and away. With only 28,501 at Bulldog Stadium against Wyoming, it wasn’t much different (though the weather certainly wasn’t an issue).

Fresno State had no problems at UCLA, ripping off consecutive 75-yard touchdown drives to start the game.

Whether or not that is a factor, the Bulldogs have been very sluggish in the first half, which makes pedestrian second-half numbers appear somewhat better.

Here is how they performed against Nevada:

And against Wyoming:

With quarterback Marcus McMaryion second in the conference in passing efficiency and yards per pass play, the Bulldogs scoring is up though. Against FBS opponents, they are scoring 29.8 points per game. Last season, it was 24.2.

Racking up the TFLs

Defensive end Mykal Walker is leading the Bulldogs and tied for eighth in the conference with 6.0 tackles for loss. He has at least a piece of one in every game this season and likely has a shot to add to that against the Lobos — New Mexico has allowed 45 tackles for loss, ranking 10th in the Mountain West at 7.5 per game.

The streak by Walker is one of the longest at Fresno State over the past 10seasons.

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This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 12:23 PM.