Latest nailbiting win in New Mexico could be good for BYU

ALBUQUERQUE — BYU showed up to a back-alley fight with Nerf swords Saturday.

Luckily for the No. 22-ranked Cougars, it was enough to dispatch winless New Mexico in University Stadium.

The Cougars barely made enough plays to hold off an inspired Lobo team that had the ball with enough time to defeat the Cougars. But key sacks by Jan Jorgensen, and Coleby Clawson as time expired, preserved BYU's sixth road victory.

If anything, Saturday's 24-19 hard-fought win for the Cougars was a good thing. It put the entire BYU football organization on alert and on edge.

If they'd plastered 0-10 New Mexico like they did Wyoming in Laramie last week, they'd don letterman jackets around campus this week believing they'd achieved some awesomeness that really doesn't fit the script.

It would be similar to defeating No. 3 Oklahoma in Dallas, killing Tulane and then looking extremely bad against Florida State at home.

But historically, this is a place BYU finds a nasty fight. Ask Jim McMahon and Kevin Feterik, who both lost here. Ask Brandon Doman and Gary Crowton, who should have. The last five BYU-UNM games in this stadium have been decided by 22 points — all Cougar wins.

In BYU's last five trips here, they've scored just 24, 10, 27, 31 and 24 points.

It was an uncomfortable experience but historically plausible considering the Lobos give BYU fits here.

The Cougars can use this burr in their shorts to work harder, prepare better and somehow elevate themselves to a higher level for a final run at Air Force and Utah at home in coming weeks.

They'll have to because if they show like this at home, where they've lost two games, they could end with another pair of losses.

Bronco Mendenhall chose to take the classy path in describing the five-point win. He praised embattled Lobo coach Mike Locksley and his squad for making critical plays and laboring hard.

"It's really what this place is all about," said Mendenhall, who was UNM's D-coordinator in 2001. "I'm talking about Albuquerque. It should be difficult to come in here and win a football game."

The win did give BYU an impressive undefeated record on the road, the first time that's been achieved by a Cougar squad since 1984.

But it's the teaching moments that will weigh heavy for BYU in the next 48 hours.

The whiteboard will have plenty of fodder come Monday: