FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Colorado State football team rolled out the green carpet for Boise State in the Broncos’ Mountain West debut.
As in, a lot of open space on the Hughes Stadium field.
The No. 5 Broncos set a school record with 742 yards of offense, scored nine touchdowns and assembled seven scoring drives of less than 2 minutes on their way to a 63-13 triumph.
“It kind of sets the standard for us in the Mountain West,” senior wide receiver Tyler Shoemaker said. “We talked about that, emphasized that a lot this week in practice: ‘Let them know as a new conference member we’re here to compete for it.’ ”
The Broncos won by 50 points for the second straight week. They led 35-0 midway through the second quarter and, after a brief Rams rally late in the half, tacked on four touchdowns in the first 11 minutes of the third quarter.
Boise State hit the midpoint of the regular season with a 6-0 record and hasn’t been threatened in the second half of a game all season.
“They can make you look silly,” Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild said.
Particularly now that the Broncos’ offense has jelled.
Just like in the 57-7 win over Fresno State on Oct. 7, the Broncos looked borderline unstoppable.
Senior tailback Doug Martin carried 20 times for a career-high 200 yards and three touchdowns — part of a 393-yard rushing performance by Boise State, the second-most since the school joined the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1996.
Martin scored on runs of 26 and 65 yards on the Broncos’ first two possessions. D.J. Harper added 63 yards and two scores and third-stringer Drew Wright of Vallivue High closed out the game with 79 yards in the fourth quarter.
“We were blocking things really clean and our run game timing was matching up really nice,” offensive coordinator Brent Pease said.
Shoemaker added nine catches for a career-high 180 yards and two touchdowns. His scores covered 52 and 62 yards and came on plays designed to exploit flaws in the Rams’ coverage.
He was wide open.
“We had some looks that we knew they played their coverage a certain way against the formation we had,” Shoemaker said, “and we took advantage.”
In fact, the play that resulted in Shoemaker’s first touchdown was suggested by senior quarterback Kellen Moore. The Broncos ran it a couple years ago and the quarterback told Pease he thought it would work this week.
Shoemaker broke free in the middle of the secondary.
“We put it in and (Moore) was right and he executed it,” Pease said.
It was that kind of day for Moore, who completed his first 18 passes and finished 26-of-30 for 338 yards and four touchdowns. He was sacked once, but tackles Nate Potter and Charles Leno Jr. shut out the nation’s leader in sacks, Nordly Capi.
The Broncos employed their ultra-fast no-huddle offense at times and often spread the field with receivers, allowing Moore to sit in the shotgun, identify the best matchup and deliver the ball.
“Coach Pease did a great job designing this game plan, of really spreading them out,” coach Chris Petersen said. “That plays right into Kellen’s strengths, to be able to really see things. It doesn’t matter where it is on the field — Kellen’s usually going to see it.”
Fairchild, who was a second-team all-conference quarterback at Colorado State, left impressed.
“What did he hit? Eighteen in a row?” he said. “When I played, I couldn’t have done that on air.”
Said Moore: “It just felt like we were executing like the way it goes in practice, and that’s our goal.”
The Rams (3-3, 1-1 MW) gave their near-capacity crowd a few moments of glee in the second quarter. They scored two touchdowns in a 6-minute span on trick-play passes — breaking up the Broncos’ string of three straight first-half shutouts.
They also forced a fumble that stopped what looked like another Broncos scoring drive and forced a field-goal attempt in the final seconds of the half that Dan Goodale missed.
Petersen, who for weeks had been trying to coax a second half out of his team that would match their dominant first halves, wanted to see his team answer in the third quarter its their 35-13 edge.
“Colorado State did a great job taking the momentum from us,” Petersen said. “It kind of irritated the guys and they came out and answered. That was as pleasing as anything about the whole game.”
The Broncos’ third-quarter spark came from a fake punt. On fourth-and-6, coaches gave personal protector J.C. Percy the green light to use the fake if the Rams presented the correct punt-return formation.
“When you’ve got the smartest man in Boise running the punt team in J.C. Percy, you know good things are going to happen,” Petersen said. “… He saw it and the kids executed it perfectly.”
The Broncos snapped the ball to wide receiver Tyler Shoemaker, who darted through a huge hole and gained 37 yards. Three plays later, Martin scored a touchdown for a 42-13 lead.
Moore and Shoemaker connected on their second long touchdown moments later and defensive end Shea McClellin (interception) and punt returner Mitch Burroughs (64-yard return) set up two more quick touchdowns.
“The beginning of the third quarter is critical,” Moore said. “We weren’t able to do what we wanted to do at the end of the second quarter — and we made up for it.”
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