Friday, December 30, 2022

NM State Aggie Football Late Season Report 2022 Part 2


Part 1

 

12-26 vs Bowling Green Falcons in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field Detroit

Fans were excited about the possibility of the Aggies going to the Arizona Bowl again, or even better, the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.  However, NMSU’s agreements with those bowl game had lapsed.  It would have been another great showing by Aggie fans at either of those games.

 

Going into this game, the Aggies had lost their punter, Josh Carlson, to the transfer portal to go to ASU.  This was a little puzzling, though perhaps not given the opposition (more on that later).  He was did a good job here.  Thankfully, the team didn’t lose any other main starters.  The other issue was Diego Pavia.  Apparently his pulled hamstring (that’s what it seemed to be) was worse than we were told.  Luckily, he had three weeks to rest it.  They said on the broadcast he was 90%.  (And Bowling Green would have been in real trouble if he’d been 100%.)

 

Ron came over to my apartment and brought his laptop to watch the game on.  The official watch party was at Rudy’s Barbeque.  The theater at the mall next door was showing the game for free.  Buffalo Wild Wings, also next door, and a bunch of other restaurants in town were certainly showing it, too.  But never mind, Ron wanted to watch at my apartment with no meal or snacks. 

 

My main preparation for the game was rushing down to my dad’s apartment to get the Aggie throw pillow he got me for Christmas.  I’d forgotten it there yesterday.  (He also got me an Aggie rain poncho.  I sort of hope I won’t be using it.)  I asked if he wanted to come over and watch, and he grumbled that the Aggies didn’t deserve to be in a bowl and he wouldn’t watch.  Fine.  Back at home, I listened to the pregame show on the radio.  I was tempted to listen to the local game call with the ESPN video, but radio reception wasn’t great and syncing with the video would have been an issue. 

 

There was a quick TV pregame that we missed.  The crowd at Ford Field was excellent.  The weather in Detroit had been terrible, as a blizzard engulfed much of the nation, but thankfully not us in southern New Mexico.  Outdoor activities for the team were limited before the game.  Indoors, there was no problem with the weather. 

 

Bowling Green is only an hour from Detroit, so they made up most of the 23,000 in attendance.  There were Aggie fans there.  NMSU was also selling commemorative tickets.  The university would give away the seats to kids for the game.  AD Mario Moccia said they would likely be losing considerable money sending the team, the spirit squads, and the band to the game, but it was worth it for the publicity.  They ran at least four NMSU commercials during the game.  In addition, they got Pistol Pete on camera.  If that doesn’t promote the university, what will?

 

First Quarter

Defensive star, Trevor Brohard, picked a great time for his first college interception.  On BG’s first series, Brohard came up big.  Quarterback Diego Pavia took over from there.  He hit Justice Powers for 42 yards on a third and long and Pavia ran on another third and 9.  Diego then hit Star Thomas for the touchdown.  7-0 Aggies.

 

I’d hate to put this as the pivotal play of the game, but on BG’s next series, their quarterback, Matt McDonald was hit by Dylan Early after he’d stepped out of bounds on a keeper.  At best I can say is that Early had his head down and might not have seen him go out, but it looked like a cheap shot.  McDonald flipped over and hit his head on the sidelines.  He came out the game, not to return.  There was a sad scene later when McDonald’s father was consoling him on the sidelines.  Even with the penalty, the BG drive stalled with the backup in, including a sack.  A 51-yard field goal missed.   

 

Second Quarter

BG got some revenge on the next Aggie series.  Pavia scrambled up the middle for the first down and took a cheap hit by Chris Bacon while taking a slide.  The penalty helped the drive.  Pavia found Eric Marsh on a short pass for a touchdown to make it 14-0.  BG came back with another drive and a missed field goal from 40 yards out.  Late in the half, Pavia was intercepted throwing on fourth down on the BG side of the field.  It was Bacon again making the play.  Pavia came off limping, but was okay for the rest of the game.   

 

Third Quarter

The Aggies first possession of the second half featured Jonathan Brady making a great 37-yard rush.  Dear God, Pavia was blocking for him downfield.  This young man was going to do whatever to win today.  Ethan Albertson hit a 35-yard field goal to make it 17-0 Aggies. 

 

The joy was short-lived.  Ta’ron Keith ran back the short kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown, 17-7.  I could hear Coach Kill groaning from here.  I had listened to an interview with him before the game and he’d obsessed over special team’s play.  He’d blamed a couple of previous bowl losses squarely on kicking issues.  Later in the quarter, Ahmonte Watkins blew through the BG line for 45-yard touchdown run to make it 24-7.  The Coach probably felt a little better.

 

Fourth Quarter

The final act of this drama started with 49-yard BG field goal to make it 24-10.  (BG did lose a player on the drive.  He was ejected for taunting, which involved grabbing the other player’s face mask.)  The Aggies started playing conservative on offense and gave the ball right back.  On BG’s next drive, Brohard forced a fumble, but it was recovered by BG.  A couple of plays later in the red zone, Chris Ojoh forced another fumble, recovered by Syrus Dumas

 

The Aggie offense was once again a bit tentative, which resulted in a punt from their own endzone.  I should mention here that Bowling Green has nation-leading kick-blocking unit.  (Maybe this is why Carlson dipped out of this game.)  Davion Daniels broke through and blocked the punt.  George Eberle, who I hadn’t heard of before this game, did have the presence of mind to fall on the ball for a safety, rather than allowing a touchdown.  24-12 and BG would be getting the ball back.  An assistant coach wrestled a pistol away from Coach Kill, who was pointing it as his own head.

 

BG backup QB, Camden Orth, led the Falcons to a quick touchdown to make it 24-19.  The Aggies got the ball back with 6:27 left on the clock.  BG had all three timeouts.  The Aggies went conservative again on their play calling.  What happened?  BG never got the ball back.  The Aggies converted on four third downs, two of them were long.  Pavia ran for three of them.  (He even fumbled the ball on one of the runs, but recovered it.)  Ron and I were barely breathing while watching these clutch plays.            

 

Aggies win 24-19Diego Pavia was your MVP.  His stats weren’t overwhelming only because they don’t measure heart.  Coach Kill got first bowl win in six attempts.  I did not know that he was winless in bowls before the game.  I also looked up the odds afterward.  Bowling Green was only a 3.5 point favorite.  It was a pretty even match up.  The Aggies are only FBS team undefeated in bowl games at 4-0-1.  However the main stat I kept hearing was 0-4, which was how the team started their season.   

 

I called dad to rub it in.  He was down at the river and had been listening to the game on the radio.  He was glad for the win.  Ron had tried to be cool while watching the game and had said, “Oh, they’re going to give it away,” but he was jumping up and cheering on big plays and diving for loose balls like I was.  We were both drained at the end of the game during that last drive.  There was barely a “Yay!”  It was mostly a “Whew!” 

 

There was no postgame.  ESPN dumped it off on to ESPN+.  Like there was anything else going on today in sports.  (There wasn’t.  This was the only bowl game.)  I flipped back on the radio, but there weren’t any postgame interviews there either.  I had to get those later off of the team Twitter.  Ron and I took off for KFC for chicken sandwiches, which were great and tasted even better with a side of victory.

 


Lastly, my dad got this great New Mexico Christmas card from a friend this year, who also gave me an Albuquerque Isotopes shirt.  I thought this would be a nice way to end the post.




 

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