Old Dominion 31, UTEP 21: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_19684" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo courtesy UTEP Athletics Photo courtesy UTEP Athletics[/caption] UTEP's bowl hopes took a huge hit with a 31-21 loss at Old Dominion on Saturday. What did we learn from this game? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.UTEP’s bowl hopes are toast. Yes, the Miners are still technically mathematically alive for a bowl game at 4-6, but with Louisiana Tech coming to town next weekend — a Louisiana Tech team coming off three straight emphatic wins and a bye week ­— it’s hard to imagine that UTEP is going to run the table the rest of the way. That’s a decided disappointment for this year which carried with it so much promise. But between this loss and that terrible loss to UTSA back on October 3, the Miners have no one to blame but themselves. When the Miners don’t run well, they don’t win. UTEP’s offensive identity took a big hit when running back Aaron Jones went down for the year, but the biggest issue is that nobody has stepped up behind him. In their four wins, UTEP averages 4.4 yards per carry; in their five losses before today, just 3.3 yards per carry. Care to guess what the Miners did today? 3.7 yards per tote, and that puts more pressure on quarterback Mack Leftwich to make plays. Leftwich wasn’t bad, all told — three touchdown passes — but he threw two interceptions that, if the running game were going better, he probably wouldn’t have been asked to throw in those situations. It all starts with the running game, and right now, Darrin Laufasa and Treyvon Hughes just aren’t filling the void left by Jones. When the Miners don’t get takeaways, they don’t win. Not to overload you with stats, but the Miners now have forced just two turnovers in their six losses. Compare that to the seven takeaways they have in their four wins, and you start to see the problem defensively. This is a bend-don’t-break defense by design, but at some point, you have to stop bending. Old Dominion had their way with UTEP through the air, as David Washington calmly carved up the secondary for almost 300 yards and two scores. If UTEP is going to win one of its last two games, its defense has to start stealing possessions.