UTEP fades in second half against Western Kentucky to fall to 3-7
Anyone who has watched enough UTEP football in the last decade has become cynical enough to see Western Kentucky's 21-13 Saturday night Sun Bowl victory coming by halftime.
In a remarkable first half, the Miners' defense held one of the nation's most prolific passing offenses to three first downs and 13 passing yards in perhaps its most dominating performance in nine years. The offense twice drove inside the WKU 5 in the second quarter.
The Miners went to halftime ahead 3-0 and it wasn't hard to see where this was going. By the end of the third quarter they were down 14-3, and that's why they are now 3-7 with nothing left to play for but pride.
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The sequence that set it all up came in the final minute of the first half when, leading 3-0, UTEP had second-and-2 from the 4. That became third-and-1 from the 3 which turned into a fourth-and-1 from the 3 which became WKU's ball on the 4 with 13 seconds left.
So it went.
What they said
"I'm heartbroken with the loss, when I look at the stats I'm even more heartbroken," coach Dana Dimel said after his team outgained Western Kentucky 368 yards to 280. "You take a play or two difference there it's a whole new ballgame.
"There's not a category they won except the scoreboard, that's the only one that counts."
UTEP had three red zone trips in the game, two of those inside the 5-yard line, and came away with six points on those possessions.
Of the Miners' five snaps inside the 5 in the first half, all were runs behind an offensive line missing three starters to injury and all failed.
"As a quarterback, when you get the ball in the red zone, you have great drives like that, your offensive is moving, then only three points to show for it in that first part of the game — you definitely have to capitalize," quarterback Cade McConnell said. "That's going to be the No. 1 thing that stings right now."
As to the all-run play selection in close behind essentially a second-team offensive line, Dimel said he thought about passing but "I didn't want to outsmart myself."
How it went
Those seven losses have all been unique in their way but similar in this: When one side of the ball got hot, the other one tanked. In this game, the defense played great in the first half but the offense couldn't finish drives.
In the second half the offense finally scored a touchdown on a big play but the defense broke, giving up three consecutive touchdown drives to a team it held to 65 yards in the first half.
With that 3-0 lead, UTEP took the second half kickoff, drove to the Hilltopper 34-yard line and couldn't convert fourth down.
Two plays later, Western Kentucky tailback Elijah Young broke a 63-yard touchdown run for the Hilltoppers fourth first down, almost doubling their offensive output in the process, and UTEP never led again.
"I was really pleased with all the players, not just their effort but their performance," Dimel said. "When I go back and watch the film I'm going to be sick. When I look back on how well we played, as beat up as we are, I'm going to be sick when I watch the film."
That was the kind of night the Miners suffered through in their next-to-last Sun Bowl game of the year.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP fades in second half against Western Kentucky to fall to 3-7
