The Cougars took a trip to Albuquerque and ran into a desperate New Mexico team who only had two games left and needed to win them both to become bowl eligible. No one on the field displayed that desperation and desire to win more than Lobos Sophomore QB Devon Dampier who, although not that accurate throwing the ball, still connected for 174 yards and a touchdown without throwing an interception while also rushing 28 times for 193 yards and three more scores, the last of which gave them a 38-35 lead with just twenty seconds left. Dampier wasn’t the only Lobo with over 100 yards on the ground as Junior RB Eli Sanders carried the ball 13 times for 108 yards and a TD as well. All toll Dampier, Sanders, and Junior RB Naquari Rogers rushed 47 times for 349 of the team’s 360 total yards on the ground.
Getting the ball to start, New Mexico took the early lead at the end of a 75 yard 11 play drive that ended with Dampier’s first rushing TD of the day to go up 7-0. But Washington would score on back-to-back-to-back TD’s to be out in front 21-7 with just five minutes gone in the 2nd Qtr making it seem as though this game was not going to become the problem that it did. Forcing the Lobos to a three-and-out on their next possession it seemed likely that the Cougars were going to blow the game open on their next possession. But in spite of a 16 yard completion and a 15 yard roughing-the-passer penalty on their first play from scrimmage and moving the ball from the 19 yard line all the way to mid-field, the Cougars’ drive stalled after an incomplete pass by Sophomore QB John Mateer as well as a sack—forcing a punt. Five plays later New Mexico would eat into that lead on the end of Dampier’s only TD pass of the day, a 42 yard beauty to Caleb Medford to make it 21-14 with over five minutes left in the 2nd Qtr. But Mateer would come back with a 29 yard TD pass of his own to Senior WR Kyle Williams 10 plays and 75 yards later to go into the break up 28-14.
The script got flipped in the 2nd half as New Mexico held Washington State scoreless through their first four possessions while putting up 14 more points of their own to tie the score at 28 a piece by the end of the 3rd Qtr and then go ahead by three, 31-28, at the end of a long 13 play 86 yard drive and Luke Drzewiecki 19 yard field goal with less than five minutes left in the game. The Cougars would quickly take the lead right back on their next possession, a 4 play 75 yard drive in less than 1.5 minutes that included back-to-back 18 and 12 yard runs by RB Leo Pulalasi as well as a 37 yard TD pass from Mateer to Williams to put Washington state up 35-31 with just over three minutes left. But the Lobos were not to be denied and ate up all but 20 seconds of the remaining time on an 11 play 75 yard drive ending in Dampier’s fourth TD of the day, a 38-35 lead, and a win that keeps New Mexico’s hope of becoming bowl eligible alive.
With Mateer actually out-pacing his counterpart on the scoreboard while connecting on 70% of his passes for 375 yards and 4 TD’s as well as rushing for another it was a heart-wrenching loss for Washington State, a team hoping to win out as well as get some help from other teams above them in the CFP rankings—moving them up into the 12 team mix for the national playoff championship. But adrift in what’s left of a PAC-12 torn apart by conference realignment it was probably always just a dream—a reason to play as hard as they could and show the college football world that they belonged. Well, in spite of the loss they did that and have made Cougar nation proud all season long and need to continue to do so. They have two more games left to play and if they win both will become only the third team in school history to win 10 regular season games with the other two coming in 1929 under head coach Babe Hollingbery and then again in 2018 under head coach Mike Leach who’s team also won a bowl game giving them 11 wins for the first time in school history—a record this team has a chance of matching.