Boise State football snaps out of lull with strong finish to beat Nevada

It was mostly ugly, it was frustrating, the mistakes were almost too numerous to count — and yet, Boise State was celebrating Saturday night at Mackay Stadium.

A win’s a win, and the Broncos gladly took the 31-27 victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack, but it was a slog.

It was exhausting for those watching and those playing. It felt like two games — and not just because it took nearly four hours to complete. One of the more aggravating first halves imaginable was followed up by a solid final 30 minutes to walk away as the victors.

“It’s not going to be pretty all the time. I came out and I was playing some of the worst football I’d every played in my life. Thankfully, we were able to turn it on in the second half,” Boise State senior quarterback Brett Rypien said.

Bouncing back from a home loss the prior Saturday against San Diego State, it was a minor miracle that Boise State (4-2 overall, 2-1 Mountain West) was tied at 17-17 with Nevada at the halftime break.

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The Broncos lost three turnovers — two interceptions and a fumble — in the first half, leading to 14 points for the Wolf Pack (3-4, 1-2). Even the Broncos’ man in charge felt fortunate to be tied up after two quarters.

“I did. You look at that, those numbers, if you’re calculating how the game might go ...,” Harsin said.

It wasn’t just the turnovers. There were the penalties, nine of them in the first half alone, for 108 yards, as the Broncos were uncharacteristically undisciplined.

A.J. Richardson and fellow receiver John Hightower were called for unsportsmanlike conduct after celebrating Hightower’s 88-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The Broncos had a pass interference and a personal foul on Nevada’s second drive, but recovered a fumble inside their own 10-yard line to negate the momentum. A Nevada touchdown late in the second quarter was preceded by pass interference and roughing the passer flags, the latter on third down.

“We have to fix it going into the next game, we can’t have nine penalties. ... It was definitely addressed. Those definitely hurt us,” senior STUD end Jabril Frazier said.

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But the Broncos got big plays that kept them in it, with Hightower’s touchdown run putting them on the board, and cornerback Tyler Horton reeling off a 99-yard interception return 1:11 into the second quarter for a 14-10 lead. Horton’s interception came the play after a Rypien interception.

“We stuck up for the offense,” Horton said. “When they’re out there making plays doing things, we celebrate with them. When things aren’t going the way we like, it’s, ‘Hey, we got y’all’s back,’ and they had our back and so it just shows football goes both ways.”

Nevada turned a Hightower fumble into a 35-yard drive capped with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Ty Gangi to Elijah Cooks with 42 seconds left before halftime. Boise State answered with a 31-yard Haden Hoggarth field goal as the second quarter ended.

“The changing point in the game was the drive we had before half, getting a rhythm going. ... We had really only stopped ourselves,” Rypien said.

Boise State never trailed again, going ahead for good on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Rypien to Richardson with 5:37 left in the third quarter. Rypien completed his first 13 passes in the second half after going 14-of-22 for 125 yards with two interceptions the first half. He finished the game with 299 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

But it wasn’t some long gain that sealed the win, it was as clutch of an 8-yard reception as you’ll find. Facing fourth-and-8 at the Nevada 39 with 3:17 to play, the Broncos not only went for it, they converted on a Rypien to CT Thomas pass right at the marker to continue a drive that ate up all but 6 seconds of the final 8:26 of the game.

Thomas had a Rypien pass bounce off his hands that was intercepted with 10 minutes to go and vowed to make up for it.

“After that play, he was like, ‘Let it go C, let it go and focus on the next play,’ ” Thomas said. “I was kind of hurt from dropping that pass ... I had to let that play go and come back and make another play.”

In the second half, the Broncos had zero penalties, and the Wolf Pack had just three possessions before getting the ball back in the final seconds. The defense forced a three-and-out that preceded the 17-play, 61-yard drive to grind out the win.

“We had a way better second half than we did the first, that was the nice thing to see, us respond to adversity, because I don’t feel like we did a great job of that last week,” Rypien said.

Boise State heads back home on a short week, hosting Colorado State (3-4, 2-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.

This story was originally published October 14, 2018 at 5:26 AM.