Boise State-Nevada report card: Grading the Broncos’ bounceback win in Reno
Even as Boise State beat Nevada for the 16th time in its last 17 tries Saturday, it always is an interesting matchup at Mackay Stadium.
In the Broncos’ last five visits to Reno, all have been decided by a touchdown or less, including their 31-27 win Saturday. Kellen Moore threw three interceptions here once, and no one will forget that 2010 game. So, weird things happened, and Boise State overcame some adversity — mostly self-inflicted — to avoid the upset.
After nine penalties for 108 yards in the first half, the Broncos had none in the second half, and though they had a second-half turnover, it was much better than the three in the first two quarters.
“I thought our guys overcame quite a bit tonight,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “Now, some of the things in the first half, the discipline part of it with the penalties and some of those things that we don’t do, we talked about that part of it. We corrected that. We made better decisions.”
Boise State (4-2 overall, 2-1 Mountain West), which for the first time this season received no points in the Associated Press or USA Today coaches’ poll, hosts Colorado State (3-4, 2-1) at 7 p.m. Friday.
OFFENSE: B-minus
A rough first half was certainly saved by a strong finish. Senior quarterback Brett Rypien said he played “some of the worst football of my life” early after a poor game the prior week, but he was excellent in the third quarter as the Broncos took the lead for good.
Boise State finished with 506 total yards (299 passing, 207 rushing) in a much-needed balanced effort. Receiver John Hightower’s 88-yard touchdown run certainly helped, but the rushing attack finally showed up late, with 14 attempts in the 8-minute drive that salted the game away late.
The Broncos were 11-of-18 on third downs and 2-of-3 on fourth downs. Rypien threw a 36-yard touchdown to CT Thomas on a fourth-and-6 on the first drive of the third quarter, then after Nevada tied it up, hit A.J. Richardson for a 41-yard score that gave the Broncos the lead for good.
“They scored right after we scored and we came back down and scored again. That’s football, and that’s what I wanted to see from our team,” Rypien said.
DEFENSE: B
Harsin called Tyler Horton’s 99-yard interception return for a touchdown early in the second quarter “spectacular,” and it was much-needed as Nevada could have turned a three-point lead into a 10-point one. The Broncos also recovered a fumble inside their own 10, preventing another potential scoring drive. The penalties hurt and kept Wolf Pack drives alive, however.
The clearly improved Wolf Pack used their deep receiver corps as quarterback Ty Gangi found some success on slants and fades, completing 24-of-42 passes for 304 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Nevada rushed for 82 yards, was 5-of-13 on third downs and 2-of-2 on fourth down.
“I feel like we did a great job. We have to keep stopping the run, that’s our main goal,” senior STUD end Jabril Frazier said.
Like last week, the defense was tested with its back to the wall — two of Nevada’s touchdown drives started in Boise State territory thanks to turnovers.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
By the Broncos’ recent standards, it may as well be an A-plus, since there was no major, glaring error made by the special teams. Kicker Haden Hoggarth, who was replaced by Joel Velazquez the prior week against San Diego, made his lone field goal, a 31-yarder. Hoggarth also stepped in as the kickoff specialist after Velazquez left with an undisclosed injury. Nevada came into the game one of the top punt return units in the nation, and the Broncos did not allow a single return.