Murphy: Bowl losses becoming a bad trend for Broncos

SAN DIEGO -Boise State lived up to its reputation for producing dramatic endings in its 17-16 Poinsettia Bowl loss to TCU on Tuesday night.

Now the Broncos must find a way to shed another growing rep: they don't win bowl games.

The Poinsettia Bowl loss marked the fourth time in five years the Broncos have lost a nail-biting bowl game to a good team. Tuesday's effort joins narrow defeats to East Carolina (2007), Boston College (2005) and Louisville (2004) as came-up-short bowl games. No one can ever change what happened against Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, but that game is beginning to look like the exception in Boise State's bowl history.

There are a variety of reasons why the Broncos have stumbled in bowl games - a lack of motivation being the main culprit against East Carolina, a lack of focus being the decider against Boston College and a lack of quality competition to prepare them being the biggest factor against Louisville and TCU.

Boise State faces a scheduling quandary each season, knowing that one loss will likely knock it out of contention for the lucrative Bowl Championship Series. It doesn't help that the Broncos' league foes haven't provided much competition over the last, oh, seven years.

That lack of quality competition manifests itself in bowl games when the Broncos meet their best (or second-best in some years) opponents of the season. That was never more apparent than Tuesday night.

The 11th-ranked Horned Frogs (11-2) were the best team Boise State (12-1) had seen all season and quite likely the best team the Broncos have faced since Oklahoma on that fateful night two years ago.

"They were pretty much everywhere," senior tailback Ian Johnson said. "They had better athletes than we've ever seen."

Fast and physical on defense, determined and multiple on offense, the Horned Frogs whipped the Broncos everywhere but on the scoreboard. TCU amassed 472 yards of total offense, the most surrendered by Boise State all season. TCU held the Broncos to 250 yards of total offense, Boise State's lowest total since Wyoming in 2006.

Boise State is used to being the one doing the punishing, not the other way around. With a depleted defensive line, the Broncos couldn't muster much of a pass rush or keep TCU from churning up yards and clock in the second half. Against one of the nation's best defenses, all those wide-open passes had to be squeezed into tighter spaces.

Boise State has gotten away with attempting too many field goals this season. The Broncos have lived with kicker Kyle Brotzman's occasional misfires. But against the Horned Frogs, those missed opportunities proved crucial.

The Poinsettia Bowl marked the first time all season Boise State trailed in the second half. Think about that. For 12 games, the Broncos never - not once - looked up at the scoreboard and found themselves behind after halftime.

So when TCU running back Joseph Turner gave the Horned Frogs the lead in the fourth quarter, Boise State quite literally was in unprecedented territory. Consider how unusual it was to see coach Chris Petersen managing the clock at the end of the game. Normally he's shaking off a Gatorade bath by that time.

Quarterback Kellen Moore has never had to lead a fourth-quarter comeback. Or a third-quarter one for that matter. In his first chance, the freshman wunderkind was intercepted. He'll deliver in that situation at some point in his career, probably because he failed this time.

It helps to have experience. It helps to be prepared for what you're going to face. Being challenged once a year - in the bowl game -is a good recipe for losing such affairs.

This year's Broncos weren't expected to be undefeated in the regular season, weren't expected to be ranked in the top 10 and certainly weren't expected to be just the second Boise State team in history to go 13-0. Not with a freshman quarterback, four new starters on the offensive line and some question marks defensively.

The one-point loss to TCU doesn't change how far Boise State exceeded expectations this season.

But it does reinforce the perception - fair or not - that the Broncos are making their name off inferior competition.

Given their circumstances, winning bowl games against quality opponents is the only way to change it.

Brian Murphy: 377-6444