Jackson Arnold rallies UNLV past No. 23 New Mexico, 21-17

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Jackson Arnold threw a long fourth-quarter touchdown pass and ran for another score and UNLV beat No. 23 New Mexico 21-17 on Saturday night, spoiling the Lobos’ first home game in The Associated Press poll.

Arnold threw for 201 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 98 yards to help UNLV (6-4, 4-2 Mountain West) beat the Lobos (8-2, 5-1) on the road for the fifth straight time.

“I thought Jackson Arnold did an amazing job managing the game and making the big plays we needed to, especially on third down,” UNLV coach Dan Mullen said.

The Rebels fell behind 14-0 as New Mexico relied on its power rushing game and stout defense. But when UNLV was able to take that away, the Lobos did not have a response.

“Their base, they’re known for a one physical running game,” Mullen said. “We want to try to take away the running game, force them to pass, and that was going to be a big part of the game plan. And I think that worked for us. As the game went on, when we got the lead and they were not able to execute in the pass game.”

Scottre Humphrey went over from 3 yards in the first quarter for the Lobos, and Cade Keith caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Toa Fa’avae in the second quarter, but New Mexico could not quite generate enough offense the rest of the way.

And late in the first half, Arnold found Keyan Burnett for an 18-yard scoring pass that set the stage for the second half.

In the fourth quarter, Arnold threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to cut it to 17-14 with 11:40 left, then took a quarterback draw 44 yards for 21-17 lead with 7:26 to go.

“Well, I think I think I got on our guys,” Mullen said of the first-half struggles offensively. “If you saw it early in the game, I think we had three dropped passes in the first half. We had two red zone turnovers on mistakes. You know, a tipped ball that got up in the air, and then a receiver ran ran the wrong route on a play, and the quarterback ends up having to hold the ball too long. So the one frustrating thing of getting on our guys to say, hey, there’s some plays there for us to make. We just got to execute. We can’t make mistakes.”

The takeaway

UNLV: Remained in contention for the conference title.

New Mexico: The loss will almost certainly end New Mexico’s time in the rankings after two weeks, but the Lobos remain a front-runner for the conference championship.

“A lot of our goals are still there for us,” New Mexico coach Jason Eck said. “We still can play in the conference championship game. We still have a chance at a pathway to double digits wins, which has not been done here in a long time.”

Up next

UNLV: At San Jose on Saturday.

New Mexico: At Wyoming on Friday night.