Unpredictable: Saturday’s Aggies vs. Lobos football game

The New Mexico State vs. New Mexico football game on Saturday is a hard one to predict.

The reasons being....

Both teams appear fairly even.

The Aggies have been inconsistent — they have been more competitive this year in the early portion of their schedule — and could have another win on their season to this point.

The Lobos have been bad, outscored by an average of 43-17.

The Aggies are 1-point favorites going into the game, on the road at University Stadium in Albuquerque.

NMSU has won the past two meetings in the rivalry series.

UNM just fired its head coach Mike Locksley and could have newfound life under interim head man George Barlow. No telling how the Lobos will respond — we’ll only find out come kickoff.

Both teams haven’t had good play along the offensive lines.

The Lobo defense has been bad.

UNM should be ready for this game — their head coach was just fired, they’re home underdogs to their in-state rival and are facing the possibility of a winless season.

But there have been some rules of thumb for the Aggies this year:

As always, I think the team needs to get off to a good start and have their offense lead the way. I think the Aggies would greatly benefit by taking a 10-to-14 point lead right off the bat, which in turn would help a defense that has had problems versus the run.

The Aggies should have the better play at quarterback and their wide receivers should be able to beat the UNM secondary. Taveon Rogers and Todd Lee could both have big games and should be able to do things after the catch — UNM’s defensive backs have been poor in coverage and in tackling.

I also liked the fact that NMSU was able to find its running game last week out of the run-option — the team still couldn’t run the ball up the middle but had success on outside runs. If the Aggie offense plays like it did last week at San Jose State, I like their chances.

My prediction: New Mexico State 24, New Mexico 17

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