No trap will catch these Broncos: Boise State’s rout at New Mexico sets up huge finale

The Boise State football team took care of business Friday night — and now, the big one awaits.

The Broncos cruised to a 45-14 win over New Mexico at Dreamstyle Stadium, mostly avoiding the pitfalls that come with a trap game, or a sandwich game, whatever you want to call it.

Could it have been an even bigger blowout? Sure.

Will it suffice, especially with No. 14 Utah State coming to Albertsons Stadium next Saturday? Absolutely.

“Tonight was all about New Mexico. I think we all understand we’re finishing the season at home. To me, it was all about what are we going to do this week ... a lot of it was about just being focused,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “If we were thinking about anything else, then it would show up in the game, and some of it did. It wasn’t a perfect game.”

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The sixth straight win for Boise State (9-2 overall, 6-1 Mountain West) sets up a winner-in matchup against the Aggies in the regular-season finale for the Mountain Division crown and right to host the Mountain West championship Dec. 1.

Utah State (10-1, 7-0), ranked No. 14 in the latest AP Top 25, entered the weekend with the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation.

“It’s what you want to play in, it’s what you play for,” Boise State senior quarterback Brett Rypien said. “You want to be in these big games coming down the stretch, they’re a great team and I’ll be looking forward to it.”

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It was evident quickly the Lobos were overmatched by the No. 23 Broncos, and the 16,883 in attendance knew it. Energy was going to have to come from somewhere, and Boise State was the team that found it.

Rypien hit senior wide receiver Sean Modster for 15- and 16-yard touchdown passes on the Broncos’ first two possessions for a 14-0 lead. They faced just one third down during the two drives, which covered 19 plays and 155 yards.

“We do that in practice — coach Harsin says ‘bring your own juice,’ and we did that,” said Modster, who had nine catches for 129 yards and three touchdowns. “It wasn’t anything different out here.”

New Mexico (3-8, 1-6) answered with a 10-play touchdown drive, and Boise State punted on its ensuing drive. With the Lobos having a chance to tie, sophomore linebacker Desmond Williams made the big play, stripping running back Zahneer Shuler and returning the fumble for a 9-yard touchdown. The 21-7 edge proved to be far too much for the home team to overcome.

“I was thinking what celebration I was going to do, not trying to get in trouble or anything like that,” Williams said.

Boise State’s defense kept New Mexico off the scoreboard the rest of the way and had a fourth-quarter interception that was turned into an Alexander Mattison 41-yard touchdown the next play to go up 38-14. The Lobos had just 262 yards of offense and Boise State turned all three turnovers it created into touchdowns.

“I thought our defense did a fantastic job ... holding them to 7 points, that’s hard to do,” Harsin said.

The Lobos’ only other score came on an 86-yard Marcus Hayes punt-return touchdown with 10:50 to play. Hayes, who entered third in the nation in punt-return average, had yet to score a touchdown this season. In fact, New Mexico hadn’t scored on a punt return since 2002, a span of 208 games.

“I was talking with some of my friends before the game, and I felt like it was going to happen this game,” Hayes said.

That was about the extent of the bad for Boise State — it wound up being a thorough beatdown, punctuated with an 8-yard touchdown run by freshman running back Andrew Van Buren with 1:14 remaining. Mattison posted his second straight 100-yard game with a season-high 145 yards, his final run putting him over 1,000 for the season. The Broncos rushed for 227 yards as a team.

“We were just going to pound it,” Mattison said. “Our goal was to get 200 yards rushing.”

Leaving Albuquerque with a win, no turnovers, an efficient offensive performance, a nearly dominant defense and a still-shaky special teams effort, the Broncos have plenty to feel good about, but plenty to work on.

And considering what’s around the bend, that is just about how they’d want to feel.

“We’d be fools to look past this week. I’m just happy we came in, did our job and came out,” Modster said. “Next week’s going to be a big one.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2018 at 1:01 AM.