Boise State football report card: Broncos’ home loss leaves plenty of blame to go around

Any home loss is surprising for Boise State, but the way it went down Saturday was as stunning as any.

In the Broncos’ 19-13 defeat at the hands of the San Diego State Aztecs, the offense was futile, and special teams mistakes again were cause for concern.

As Boise State (3-2 overall, 1-1 Mountain West) prepares to face Nevada on the road next Saturday, the Broncos have a lot to clean up. They fell completely out of the AP poll, and have six points in the USA Today coaches’ poll, 12 spots out of the rankings.

Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said the team was “exposed in certain areas” in the loss to the Aztecs. Some of the recurring issues popped up Saturday, and will continue to be attacked if Boise State doesn’t properly address them.

OFFENSE: D-minus

Let’s give credit to Rocky Long and his pressure-based, run-stopping defense — let’s remember the Broncos scored 17 points on offense in last year’s 31-14 win in San Diego. Still, there’s almost nothing that happened Saturday positively for Boise State.

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The Broncos’ 229 yards were their fewest at home in almost 20 years, when they had 203 against Utah State on Oct. 24, 1998. They averaged a ghastly 2.9 yards per play (it was 6.9 ypp in the first four games). The passing game, which was so good in September, had one play longer than 20 yards as Brett Rypien struggled mightily, though he did lead a solid up-tempo 73-yard drive to make it 19-13 late.

Harsin took a lot of the spotlight off Rypien after the game, placing a lot of focus on the offensive line, which continues to be a problem. The Broncos have rushed for 89.3 yards per game outside of UConn’s atrocious defense. Rypien was sacked four times Saturday and hit plenty more. Could change be coming to the line? Harsin didn’t rule it out.

“Somewhere along the way, we went wrong, and we’ve got to have an answer for that,” Harsin said, adding “now is not the time to talk about personnel changes, but we’re not good enough.”

DEFENSE: B

The Aztecs will chip away at a defense until a minor leak springs into a tidal wave, and that came with 10 minutes to play on Jordan Byrd’s 72-yard TD run. It was the third straight game the Broncos allowed a run of 50 or more yards. But the Aztecs finished with 154 yards on 44 carries, altogether a strong defensive performance.

QB Ryan Agnew was 8-of-15 for 113 yards but wasn’t goaded into major mistakes. The defense racked up four sacks, and did force a fumble when the Aztecs had moved near the red zone in the first quarter. Special teams and offensive errors gave the Aztecs the ball three times inside the Broncos’ 35, and that resulted in 13 points for the visitors.

“I thought our defense was put in really tough spots, holding them to field goals, holding them to no points, creating turnovers,” Harsin said. “That’s a difficult spot to put them in, that’s why I’m disappointed, I thought they played well.”

SPECIAL TEAMS: C-minus

First, the good — the Broncos made a great play on Quinn Skillin’s 57-yard, booming punt that San Diego State’s Ethan Dedeaux couldn’t corral. Riley Whimpey recovered the muff at the 4, setting up a short touchdown drive (which took three plays).

But there was some bad, from Skillin dropping a punt snap to end the first quarter that gave the Aztecs the ball at the Boise State 31, to kicker Joel Velazquez missing his second extra-point attempt of the day. The Broncos had two penalties on returns Saturday after having three the week prior. In close games, field position is key, and “penalties kill that,” Harsin said.

“All those little things we know make the difference in the game like catching a punt, missing an extra point, all those things matter,” Harsin said.

This story was originally published October 7, 2018 at 5:04 PM.