This is the Depth Dossier: the UTEP Miners, Week 9.

The final score reads 31 to 7, but that's not the game UTEP actually played. With under two minutes left, this was a 17 to 7 contest, and then the wheels came off in the final minute and a half.

It started about as well as a game can start. On North Dakota State's very first snap, cornerback Kaleb Miles picked off quarterback Nathan Hayes, and running back Raymond Moore the third turned that into a 57-yard touchdown run. That was as good as UTEP's offense got all day. North Dakota State's defense, ranked second in the country coming in, clamped down and held the Miners to just 181 yards the rest of the way. Quarterback EJ Colson Junior finished with only 59 passing yards and two interceptions. UTEP still hung around, trailing just 17 to 7 deep into the fourth quarter, before North Dakota State scored twice in under two minutes, including a 46-yard fumble return, to blow the game open.

Take away the scoreboard, and this was a legitimately tight game for three-plus quarters against one of the best defenses in the country. UTEP actually ran the ball well, averaging 5.1 yards per carry for 147 yards, though 57 of those yards came on Moore's touchdown burst alone. The passing game was the real problem. Colson went 11 for 16 for just 59 yards, got sacked four times, and was, by the numbers, the least effective player on the field.

A few things explain why this felt closer than the final score suggests. North Dakota State ran 69 plays to UTEP's 51 and controlled the ball for almost 37 minutes, which wore the Miners' defense down late. The Bison also converted all three of their fourth-down attempts, while UTEP struggled on third down, converting just five of thirteen. And turnovers were the real separator. UTEP gave the ball away three times while forcing only one, a turnover margin that turned a competitive game into one with no margin for error. Then that final minute and a half, with two North Dakota State touchdowns including the fumble return, did more damage to the final score than anything in the first fifty-eight minutes combined.

Turning to the depth chart, no injuries have been confirmed from this game, so the bigger storyline is how the snaps were used. Colson was back as the full-time starting quarterback after health questions followed him out of week seven, and whatever the final numbers looked like, he played the entire game. Moore, who had taken real quarterback snaps over the previous three weeks, was used instead as a runner and gadget passer. He carried the ball three times for 67 yards and a touchdown, and also went four for six passing for 32 yards. That's worth watching going forward, not as a quarterback competition, but as a two-man package where Colson throws and Moore gets designed touches, including some throws of his own.

Wide receiver Jaden Smith keeps building a role as the offense's safety valve. He caught six passes for 41 yards and added a 21-yard run, the second-longest play of the day behind Moore's touchdown. With the passing game struggling as badly as it did, Smith is clearly the most trusted option when UTEP needs to get the ball out in space.

On defense, Miles opened the game with that pick-six-setting interception on the very first snap and added four tackles on top of it. That's the kind of performance that puts him in the conversation as a legitimate playmaker in the secondary.

The bigger issue, an offense that can't sustain drives through the air, didn't get solved here, and the sack and turnover totals suggest it won't fix itself soon. Whether Moore's role keeps expanding at Colson's expense is still an open question. This game didn't answer it either way, so keep an eye on how those snaps split next week.

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