What went wrong on Boise State football’s blocked punts vs. Oklahoma State?
Boise State football coach Bryan Harsin joked Monday about the “dead horse” the media wanted to ask about at his weekly press conference.
In the end, he welcomed the questions as a chance to set the record straight.
No, the Broncos’ punters and long snapper weren’t to blame for the two blocked punts Oklahoma State produced in the Broncos’ 44-21 loss on Sept. 15.
The protection was.
ESPN announcers had floated a theory that the Broncos’ operation time — the time from snap to kick — was slow during warmups and that led to the blocked kicks. On ESPN’s own timer, the punts were kicked in 1.83 and 1.96 seconds, well within the target range.
“The issue was Oklahoma State was fast and we just didn’t execute the way we were capable of executing,” Harsin said.
So what actually went wrong?
The plays — on consecutive punt attempts — were very similar.
The Broncos used a shield-punt formation, with three blockers between the front line and the punter. But in both cases, the front line let four Cowboys go up the middle — leaving a mismatch in Oklahoma State’s favor.
On the first one, which Oklahoma State recovered at the Boise State 7-yard line to set up an easy touchdown drive, the Broncos’ shield also got beaten. Linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga blew through the group of blockers to stuff the punt. But if he hadn’t, safety Jarrick Bernard likely would have blocked the punt anyway because there was nobody to block him.
On the second one, which the Cowboys returned for a touchdown, the shield blockers slowed down their three guys but Bernard was unblocked and got his hands on the kick.
The problem, Harsin said, was obvious.
“If you cut too many guys loose and you have three and four, you can do the math,” Harsin said. “... We did it the previous two games correctly. It’s not that we didn’t have the same looks ... we saw those looks earlier in the year. We just did a better job with it.”
Troy, in the season opener, never got more than two players to the shield blockers. Boise State’s only punt against UConn occurred after the game was decided.
Oklahoma State loaded the front line with speed and seemed to catch Boise State’s punt team by surprise with its aggression.
Boise State is back in action Saturday at Wyoming.
“We’re going to have a chance to reprove ourselves in that area, and it should be different,” Harsin said.