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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Utah has been great this season at forcing turnovers. The Utes have also been very good at giving them up.
On the plus side the Utes have forced 20 turnovers, good enough to lead the nation in that statistic along with Pittsburgh and Baylor. On the down side, the Utes have turned the ball over 11 times in four losses.
"When we take care of the football, we're a good team," coach Kyle Whittingham said. "When we don't, we stink."
Utah (4-3, 2-1 MWC) plays at New Mexico (3-4, 1-2 MWC) on Thursday night and the Utes hope to finally find some consistency.
"I don't know man. Hopefully the one that's been winning," defensive end Martail Burnett said when asked which Utah team he expects will show in Albuquerque. "It's been an up-and-down season."
The Utes lost to UCLA in the season opener, then won three straight. They were blown out by No. 18 Boise State, bounced back to beat TCU and then were dominated by Wyoming in a 31-15 loss last week that wasn't as close as the score might suggest.
Wyoming's defense - ranked No. 3 nationally - held the Utes to eight first downs, 33 rushing yards and 144 total yards. Utah quarterback Brett Ratliff was sacked six times - the first sacks given up by the Utes this season.
Undoubtedly New Mexico will try to give Ratliff more of the same. The Lobos live on the blitz and they used it frequently in the second half last week to rally for a 39-36 overtime win against UNLV. The Lobos gave up plenty of yardage and 28 second quarter points to the Rebels with their gambling defensive schemes, but also forced four second-half turnovers.
The Utes and Lobos aren't out of the conference race, but both still have to go through the toughest part of their schedule. Utah has Colorado State, Air Force and league leader BYU left, while New Mexico has Colorado State, TCU and BYU ahead.
New Mexico coach Rocky Long termed the win over UNLV last week a case of two "desperate" teams.
The Lobos are also in dire need of more offensive punch. It's been a season-long search, complicated by the early loss of senior quarterback Kole McKamey to injury and the offensive line's failure to protect McKamey's replacement and inability to open holes for the running backs.
"I thought we were turning the corner when we beat UTEP, but then we went right back to struggling," Long said.
The Lobos are averaging a paltry 245 yards in total offense - 90 yards rushing - have scored just four rushing TDs and have given up 20 sacks.
Since 2002, Utah and New Mexico have had more conference wins than any other school in the league. Utah has won 22 MWC games over that span and New Mexico 20. That has heightened expectations among the fans in Salt Lake City and Albuquerque.
"The bar is very high here, especially after the Fiesta Bowl season," said Whittingham of the 2004 BCS Utah team that went undefeated under former coach Urban Meyer and quarterback Alex Smith and crushed Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl.
New Mexico has had three straight winning seasons and has been to bowl games three of the last four years, a first for the school. But attendance at home games has declined this year. If the Lobos had lost to UNLV last week, the Utes might not have had to worry about trying to take the crowd out of this week's game.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
