Bloomquist: UTEP looks like same old UTEP after mistake-filled loss at Jacksonville State

El Paso Times
One of the big reasons for optimism about this version of the UTEP football team is that it is so veteran, loaded with so many senior returnees.
There are some areas, however where the Miners don’t want to look like last year’s 5-7 team and in a disappointing 17-14 loss to Jacksonville State on Saturday, they put all of that back on film.
Mistake after mistake
This is a talented UTEP football team, the vast improvement there from six seasons ago when Dana Dimel arrived is undeniable. The Miners have a recruiting identity and they are blessed with players loyal to the program, which is why there are so many sixth-year players.
They aren’t talented enough to overcome a minus-3 turnover deficit, two dropped touchdowns, a roughing the passer penalty that likely extended a Gamecock touchdown drive, two fourth-and-short failures and a missed field goal.
Same as last year and the year before and the year before, really every year since 1988.
They aren’t talented enough to beat a solid football team that doesn’t match their mistakes and too often they don’t do a good enough job of forcing those errors.
They will rarely be good enough to win when they put 14 points on the board.
“We just didn’t get in the end zone enough,” said quarterback Gavin Hardison, who had one big mistake on an interception but otherwise threw the ball better than he has at any point in his four years here. “We didn’t score enough points.
“We’ll come back next week ready to play. This is super unfortunate and it’s something we’re all not happy about at all. But we have to respond and come back next week ready to play.”
Dimel summed it up like this: “I think we’re the better team, we didn’t play like it tonight. We played pretty well, we outgained them by a bunch of yards but we didn’t find a way to win the game.”
A big focus inevitably will be on his play calling, the easiest area for fans to second guess, the one place where fans are sure they know more than the coach.
As well as Hardison was throwing the ball, UTEP still stuck with middle runs that were often ineffective. The Miners averaged 3.6 yards on their 43 run plays, 7.2 yards on their 29 passing plays.
Flip those play numbers and their 364-275 yardage advantage is substantially bigger.
“We’d like to run the ball better, I wasn’t happy about the run game in any form or fashion,” Dimel said. “That part has to improve.”
The play calling at the end of the game when they didn’t run the ball will come under more scrutiny.
The end game
Through all their mistakes, with 90 seconds to play the Miners had driven 64 yards and had a third-and-1 from the 24.
With Jacksonville State stacked to stop the run, UTEP tried to catch the Gamecocks with a bomb to Kelly Akaharaiyi, who was open by a step but couldn’t catch the ball over his back shoulder.
Then on 4th and 1 UTEP tried another pass. As is so often the case, Dimel said the play was there, that there was one little mistake that cost them a touchdown. That is cited enough that surely UTEP would be the highest scoring team in the land without those little mistakes.
It was the second fourth-and-short failure on a deep pass call in a game where the Miners, for all their rushing struggles, were able to get a yard at a time.
In the first quarter, UTEP tried one of their most successful short-yardage play calls, a fade to the tight end out of the bunch formation that almost always is a run.
The pass to the tight end is out there on tape, though, and obviously Jacksonville State had seen it. When they covered Judah Ezinwa there was nowhere else to go except to put the defense back out there at midfield.
Defense solid enough
That ended up leading to three of Jacksonville State’s 17 points. The Miner defense, outside of a roughing penalty that probably cost them seven more points, was well above average. They didn’t get a turnover but they minimized Jacksonville State big plays.
“We played pretty well,” said linebacker James Neal, who had 10 tackles in his first career start. “If we eliminate a few mistakes we’re pretty sound.
“It hurt, I’m not going to lie. We have to come back Monday, work hard and get a W next week.”
Said Dimel: “The defense played well enough to win, I’m happy with their performance in all aspects of what they did. A defense is always going to give up a few things but overall I thought they played really well.”
In the bitterest of ends, however, they couldn’t make up for the offense’s errors as this Miners team did what so many before them did: Lose a game that was there to win.