Wild weather turns Mountain West championship into winter blunderland for Boise State

Boise State football fans were let down twice Saturday night.

Learning the Fiesta Bowl was out of reach because of UCF’s comeback win just before kickoff, the Broncos still were playing for a second straight Mountain West championship.

Braving rain, snow and frigid temperatures, those that stuck around got to see Fresno State celebrating on the Albertsons Stadium turf. A 1-yard run by the Bulldogs’ Ronnie Rivers gave them the 19-16 win in overtime, the program’s first in Boise since the field was green — Fresno State had lost 10 in a row since a Sept. 8, 1984, win.

“For one, losing out on the Blue, that’s something that we don’t do,” Boise State junior running back Alexander Mattison said. “The championship was an opportunity for us to go out there and leave a legacy with those seniors, so it’s disappointing that we couldn’t send them out that way.”

[Related: Instant Analysis: Special teams doom Broncos; Bowl destination hazy; scoring summary]

The loss was the second for No. 19 Boise State (10-3 overall) at home this season, just the ninth since 2000, but the fifth in the Broncos’ last 21. No. 25 Fresno State (11-2) evened it up against Boise State in four meetings over the last 53 weeks, having lost Nov. 9 in Boise and last December in the Mountain West championship.

“They never gave in and at the end found a way to win,” Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford said of his players. “It was hard and tough conditions. It was a noisy stadium and hostile environment. Our players were not going to be denied tonight.”

Perhaps most frustrating for the 23,662 on hand and those on the sideline, as the Blue turned white, was the Broncos failing to put the game away when they had their chances.

The most obvious was the most simple of plays, an extra point, following Mattison’s latest Herculean effort, a 34-yard touchdown with 8:01 to play that made it 13-13. Kicker Haden Hoggarth had hit all 57 extra points this season, but Matt Boateng beat the edge, dove and blocked the kick.

“You try not to worry about it, but it’s something we’ll go back and think about it — but it sucks, we had an extra point to win the game and got it blocked,” Boise State senior quarterback Brett Rypien said.

Hoggarth missed a third-quarter field goal in the snowy conditions, and paired with the blocked extra point, it was the latest in a season full of special teams miscues. Fresno State kicker Asa Fuller made both field goal attempts, from 44 and 38 yards. He was 11-of-19 coming into the game.

“We’ve been successful in that area, but we weren’t tonight,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said of PATs. “Unfortunately, at the end of the game, that becomes a big point when you have a chance to be up by one and you might be able to do some things differently.”

[Don’t miss any of our Boise State football coverage. Get a discounted digital subscription here.]

Boise State had another shot, after linebacker Tyson Maeva stripped wide receiver Michiah Quick and defensive back Kekaula Kaniho recovered at the Fresno State 43-yard line with 4:11 to play, but the offense went three-and-out. On first down, Rypien tried a deep shot to John Hightower, but it was just out of reach.

“We had the momentum, got good field position ... that’s one we’re going to want back,” Rypien said. “That first-down pass, John goes up and maybe I didn’t put it in exactly the right spot, but we’ve got to make plays, maybe I need to put more air under it or give him a better chance, I don’t know.”

The Broncos had one more shot in regulation, starting at their own 16-yard line with 1:23 remaining, but got off four plays, throwing once. Harsin said the goal was to prevent the Bulldogs from getting the ball again.

Mattison earned Offensive MVP honors, tying the Boise State record with 40 carries and picking up 200 yards for the second straight week. He rushed for 914 yards in the Broncos’ last six games.

“Without him, we don’t even go into overtime, we have no shot,” Harsin said.

Mattison got the ball the first four plays of overtime, but on third-and-goal at the 6, Rypien threw an incompletion on a fade route, settling for a 23-yard Hoggarth field goal.

“It was a situation where we needed someone to step up and take over, and I was accepting of that role,” Mattison said. “... At the end of the day the regulation ran out in a tie, and in overtime we weren’t able to punch it in and they were. It’s a disappointing feeling, especially when people were trusting in you.”

No one in that stadium could say Mattison let them down. Special teams, an ineffective pass game, missed chances, sure. And it all was affected by what may have been the MVP if not for Mattison — Mother Nature.

Fresno State got on the board first thanks to a fumble the Bulldogs recovered as the ball slipped out of Rypien’s hand deep in the Broncos’ own territory. Three plays and 20 yards later, the Bulldogs had a 7-0 lead 6 minutes into the game on a 15-yard pass from Marcus McMaryion to Quick.

“That’s where it was like ‘OK, this is a struggle,’ ” Harsin said. “... It wasn’t getting better at that time.

“I don’t think either side was throwing it exceptionally well.”

Boise State responded with a clock-grinding, 15-play, 75-yard drive that ate up 7 minutes — again, that rascally wet ball came into play. An apparent Rypien interception slid through safety Mike Bell’s hands and receiver Sean Modster caught the deflection with a tip-toe grab in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown to tie it up.

Rypien was 15-of-31 for 125 yards, 5-of-12 for 56 yards in the second half. McMaryion was 20-of-32 for 170 yards in the win.

Boise State’s defense held Fresno State to 288 total yards, another strong effort, but the offense struggled. Six times, the Broncos reached Fresno State territory on their first seven drives, and had seven points to show for it. A failed fourth down was sprinkled in with three punts and the missed field goal.

“That’s happened a couple times to us this year, but in a big-time game like this, not doing that, it was a big difference, it was frustrating, but we had to keep going,” Modster said.

The Broncos will find out their bowl destination Sunday, while Fresno State is expected to be headed to the Las Vegas Bowl. A day that held so much promise ended cold and messy, with Boise State pondering how it can rebound.

“It’s very difficult to see. We wanted to go out with a championship and do it here, but we didn’t make enough plays,” Boise State senior STUD end Jabril Frazier said. “We’ve still got one more chance to make Bronco Nation proud.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2018 at 12:35 AM.