It was not a coincidence that Utah's offensive explosion in the third quarter of its Mountain West Conference matchup against visiting New Mexico coincided with Eddie Wide's production.

Behind ever-expanding holes, the 5-foot-10 junior back from Las Vegas gained 122 in the third quarter as Utah blew open its lead from 17-7 to 38-7.

The Utes (8-1, 5-0 MWC) gained 251 yards on the ground in their 45-14 pounding of the winless Lobos (0-9, 0-5).

As Wide spent the fourth quarter on the sidelines, his backup, freshman Sausan Shakerin, enjoyed a century mark of his own as well as scoring the Utes' final touchdown.

The final count saw the two runners bull their way to 245 yards and three touchdowns. Wide, who gained just 23 yards in the first half, produced a career-high 145 yards, a performance that no group enjoyed more than the offensive line.

"It's great just to jog behind them and act like I did something on that, play" right tackle Tony Bergstrom said. "We came out really relaxed, really confident."

Wide broke a record held by Carl Monroe (1982), Mike Anderson (1998) and Darrell Mack (2007).

"It's really exciting," said Wide of his accomplishment. "It's a pretty big deal. The O-line did a great job. I found the holes and kept pushing."

The holes that Wide and Shakerin found kept growing as the game wore on and the Lobos' front seven wore out. Collectively, the starting Ute front five weighs in at a nice round 1,500 pounds, sometimes known as a small ton.

"That's what we like to do," left tackle Zane Beadles said. "Those runs of two and three yards in the first quarter grew into five-, eight- and 10-yard runs as the game wore on."

By the time Wide took the ball on sweep to the left near the four-minute mark of the third quarter, New Mexico's defense was swept away. Wide sprinted 35 yards for a touchdown, brushing through an ankle tackle near the 10.

"He's been the most important facet of our offensive production during the last six games," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

martyr@sltrib.com