UTEP Taking Care of the Rock Early

While the start to this season hasn't exactly gone how most of us had hoped for, there are still plenty of areas that this team has excelled in. Of course, the rushing game has done extremely well. Both Nathan Jeffery and now Autrey Golden have established themselves as the top players in the backfield.

The defense has played well overall, and has shown they have playmaking ability at all three levels. The passing game, which was nowhere to be found in week 1, now seems like its completely on track. But, all of that arguably isn't the best thing that the Miners are doing right now.

One thing the Miners have done extremely well through the first three weeks of the season is they have taken care of the football. As of now, they are +3 in the turnover department, only giving up one, an interception by Carson Meger against Ole Miss.

Granted, the play hasn't been perfect. We did put the ball on the ground a couple of times against Oklahoma, but we were able to recover. In the passing game though, at least with Nick Lamaison, we have done an very good job taking care of the rock.

After a poor 6-23 outing in the opener, Nick has now completed better than 63% in two straight games, going for 552 yards, 5 touchdowns, and more important than anything no interceptions. It should also be noted that Carson Meger has done well with his opportunities, going 8 of 12 with only the one miscue.

The bottom line is that winning the turnover battle goes a long way in winning games in the game of football. While this team is certainly still finding themselves, if they can continue to protect the football the way they have through the first quarter of the season, they will definitely be in good shape to win plenty of ball games.