After suffering its third straight loss to start the year, the New Mexico State football team heads to Lobo territory for a showdown with New Mexico at Dreamstyle Stadium this Saturday in what will be the Aggies’ best chance to bring home a win so far this season.

Last weekend was NM State’s first real litmus test of the season after playing a pair of money games against Top-20 teams to kick things off, but the Aggies early season struggles continued against San Diego State in what head coach Doug Martin described as “the worst offensive performance [he’d] seen in 34 years of coaching.”

“We don’t do anything consistently enough to win, particularly the turnover game. If we would have turned to ball over one time [last] Saturday, we win,” Martin said. “We’ve got to prepare better.”

After that 31-10 trouncing, the Aggies are on the wrong side of a 151-27 scoring margin through three games — the worst  difference in the country by a considerable amount, and the team will be the first to tell you that that isn’t acceptable.

NM State has some highly winnable games in the latter half of the schedule, but a serious overhaul from what they’ve shown in the opening three weeks — level of competition aside — is necessary if the Aggies hope to get anything out of this season.

A win in the heated rivalry with big brother from up north is exactly what a squad like the NM State football team needs right now.

In the their cinderella 2017, the Aggies rode a pair of early season wins in rivalry matchups against UNM and UTEP to the program’s best campaign in over 50 years.

It’s no secret UNM has a clear advantage in resources available to them and the money going in to the program, but whenever NM State has overcome that — something they’ve proven to be capable of, winning two of the last three matchups — it’s led to good things for the program.

“UNM has every resource in the world up there. They’ve got indoor facilities and money, and a great conference… They’ve got everything covered for them. We’re going to have to play our best,” Martin said. “If you beat New Mexico, then you’ve won the in-state rivalry. You look at the history of New Mexico State… The years you win those games, you’ve got a chance to have a pretty good year.”

Every game matters, but there’s no denying the added meaning to games like these.

“We’ve got to show them, show them how much this means to the city, and how much this Aggie-Lobo game is to us, because it means a lot to me,” defensive end Cedric Wilcots II disclosed. “Those young guys, when they go out there and see all those people come out to Albuquerque, they’re going to get that sense, that feel, how important this game is to the whole community.”

Whether it be community pride, rivalry bragging rights, internal pressure or the basic human desire to succeed, there’s no denying the stakes of this weekend’s matchup. It’s time for NM State to show that this is a foundational year for the program’s future.