Boise State offense wilts under natural light in home loss to San Diego State

Confused, a little jittery, no sense of direction – like the nocturnal animals they usually are at home, the Boise State Broncos were lost in the daylight Saturday.

The fourth-largest home crowd in Albertsons Stadium history witnessed something almost as historic, but not in the good sense.

So sharp in the first four games of the season, the Boise State offense had one of its worst performances in years in its 19-13 loss to San Diego State. The Broncos’ 229 yards were their fewest at home since Oct. 24, 1998, as they managed just one drive longer than 30 yards.

“I feel like I could’ve done some things better, I know there’s a lot of guys that feel that way,” said Boise State junior running back Alexander Mattison, who had two 1-yard touchdowns.

From the start, there was a taste of what would come as Boise State (3-2 overall, 1-1 Mountain West) played its first October home game during daytime in six years. Quarterback Brett Rypien, who had not thrown an interception in 154 attempts coming into the game, was picked off twice on his first six throws. Punter Quinn Skillin dropped a snap to end the first quarter with another head-scratcher.

[Related: Rocky Long makes himself at home on Blue; Analysis: Boise State, Rypien flop in big game; scoring summary]

San Diego State (4-1, 1-0) scored points on drives of 5, 7 and 17 yards for its 13-7 halftime lead, the last a 2-yard Chase Jasmin touchdown run with 4:36 to the break. It was a lead the Aztecs never relinquished.

“Maybe some people will look at our offense and see what they did this game or what they didn’t do, put the blame on them, but it’s not on the offense,” senior defensive end Durrant Miles said, flexing his humility.

Yet somehow, Boise State still had a chance late, scoring on an efficient 73-yard touchdown drive to cut the lead to 19-13 and forcing a punt. Taking the ball with 1:59 to play at his own 33-yard line, Rypien had an 8-yard completion on first down, but then came an intentional grounding penalty and two incompletions to end the game. The last, a fourth down heave toward Sean Modster in triple coverage, was 10 yards over the senior receiver’s head.

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“I can say I disagree on the penalty. ... The last play, we had something we could catch underneath,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said, adding, “we just didn’t execute it.”

Rypien finished 21-of-41 passing for 170 yards with two interceptions. He was sacked four times. Harsin said “he got hit I don’t know how many times,” placing some blame on the offensive line, but Rypien looked out of sync all day even when he had time. The final throw was anything but underneath.

The Broncos entered Saturday’s game No. 4 in the nation in passing offense (362 yards per game) and the Aztecs were 109th in pass defense (272.5 ypg). Boise State rushed for 51 yards on 36 attempts against a team ranked No. 2 nationally in rush defense.

“I thought after the (first) interception, I thought that our whole secondary gained confidence and started playing better than they have all year,” San Diego State coach Rocky Long said.

But this was Boise State, at home nonetheless. The 36,679 in attendance figured that brutal start had to turn around, right?

Holding a 7-6 lead midway through the second quarter, Boise State backup quarterback Chase Cord was hit as he attempted his first pass of the game and was intercepted. That led to Jasmin’s touchdown.

OK, but eventually the offense would click, right?

Late in the third quarter, the Broncos’ defense stopped a fourth-down try and got the offense the ball at the Aztecs’ 47-yard line. Three plays and 2 yards later, it was the fourth of what proved to be six straight punts for Boise State before Mattison’s last score.

“It’s frustrating, but we try not to hang our heads, try to do better the next drive — but we had a couple drives where we had some turnovers, that’s not what we do, obviously it’s frustrating that way,” Mattison said.

Consider this for how bad Boise State’s offense was Saturday — before the last score with 3:05 to play, its lone points came on a 1-yard Mattison run to cap a 4-yard drive. Yes, 4 yards. It came thanks to a muffed punt on a Skillin boomer.

If there was a bright spot, it was the Broncos’ defense, which held San Diego State to 154 yards rushing, though 72 came on a Jordan Byrd touchdown with 10:10 remaining. The defense forced a fumble in the Broncos’ own territory in the second quarter, but the ensuing drive ended four plays later on the botched snap.

Saturday’s loss was the fourth for Harsin in the Broncos’ last 17 home games. They had only dropped four in the 108 games prior on the Blue.

“It’s obviously a difficult loss, very frustrating ... we pride ourselves on protecting the Blue and we couldn’t do that today because of a lack of execution,” said Miles, who had a sack.

Boise State had the tables turned, having won at San Diego State last season. The Broncos will try to rebound next Saturday at 8:30 p.m. MT at Nevada.

“I still think we have a lot to play for ... it’s more difficult now,” Harsin said, adding “we’ve been in this situation and we’ve done some really good things (after). I’m not going to sit here and say the season’s done.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2018 at 7:26 PM.