Instant Analysis: Broncos’ aerial antics are fun, but they must find a run game
The first half of the Boise State football team’s 34-14 win Saturday night at Wyoming was all kinds of fun to watch, particularly when senior quarterback Brett Rypien had the ball in his hands.
Alexander Mattison hurdled a guy — again. John Hightower caught a pass with one arm while losing a shoe. A.J. Richardson made an NFL-type catch between two defenders, hanging on while getting hammered. The Broncos’ special teams even contributed a couple of bright spots with a blocked punt and fumble recovery on a botched punt snap.
The second half was a snooze-fest — and not in the way that you want it to be if you’re the Broncos.
That’s when they want to turn the ball over to Mattison and the offensive line and put the game away by exerting their physical will. That didn’t happen — spotlighting a continuing problem for the Broncos. They can’t run the ball consistently when they have to, an issue that plagued the team last year, too.
“I thought we were a little sluggish in the run game, and that should have helped us,” coach Bryan Harsin said.
[Related: Rypien, Boise State replace bad memories; first-half offense was fun to watch; scoring summary]
And that’s particularly important next week when San Diego State’s challenging defense comes to town for a Mountain West showdown Oct. 6 at Albertsons Stadium (1:30 p.m., ESPNU).
It will be difficult for Rypien and his thrilling band of wide receivers to beat that defense without balance. And running the ball against the Aztecs won’t be any easier than it was against Wyoming, which is built around tough defense. San Diego State ranks second nationally against the run (2.1 yards per carry); Wyoming was 50th (3.7 ypc).
Boise State finished Saturday’s game with 46 carries for 161 yards — an average of just 3.5 yards per carry. Mattison had 20 carries for 57 yards — doing little damage after that 13-yard touchdown run on which he broke a tackle, leaped over a defender and plowed through two defenders at the goal line. And the rushing stats were padded by true freshman running back Andrew Van Buren’s 22-yard run on the final real play of the game — a gain that happened only because he broke a tackle near the line of scrimmage.
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That last drive was a perfect illustration of what still ails this Boise State offense.
The Broncos, leading by 20 with 5:47 to go, tried a run play on first down and lost 3 yards. They then threw two straight incomplete passes to stop the clock, but got bailed out by a defensive penalty.
Mattison lost 2 yards on the ensuing first down, and Robert Mahone was stuffed for no gain on a play where Boise State was flagged for holding. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Wyoming bailed out the Broncos again.
On first down, the Broncos failed to reach the line of scrimmage on a run play again. Mahone then hit runs of 7 and 9 yards on the next two plays, but fumbled on the second run — a fumble recovered by offensive lineman Andres Preciado.
And then Van Buren put the game away with three runs for 28 yards.
On the four preceding drives, the Broncos punted three times and scored their lone touchdown of the second half on a 41-yard bomb from Rypien to Hightower.
Total rushing during that stretch: 11 carries, 40 yards.
“We didn’t run the ball effectively enough, until the end,” Harsin said. “That was nice, to be able to run the ball, finish a game like that, kind of get into a little bit of a rhythm. And that was what we needed. We need that going into the next games.”
The output must increase next week. The last two times Boise State has beaten San Diego State, it has rushed for 186 yards (5.5 yards per carry) in 2017 and 212 yards (4.5 ypc) in 2014. In the two games they lost before that, they rushed for 95 yards (2.8 ypc) in 2013 and 112 yards (3.7 ypc) in 2012.
The offensive line was better Saturday than it was in the loss at Oklahoma State. But it needs to take another major step in the coming week.
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Chadd Cripe is the Idaho Statesman sports columnist. Contact him at ccripe@idahostatesman.com and follow @chaddcripe on Twitter.
This story was originally published September 29, 2018 at 9:53 PM.