Home losses ‘never acceptable’: Nevada drops Boise State to its worst start in 20 years
Boise State wide receiver Stefan Cobbs couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Cobbs knelt on the blue turf in Albertsons Stadium as Nevada’s Daiyan Henley celebrated with teammates early in the fourth quarter of Boise State’s 41-31 loss on Saturday. A pass had just bounced off Cobbs’ hands and into Henley’s for an interception, capping what was another nightmarish second half for the Broncos, who find themselves in unfamiliar territory.
Saturday’s loss snapped Boise State’s streak of 20 straight regular-season wins against teams from the Mountain West, and it marked the first time the Broncos have lost back-to-back home games since 2015. They fell to Oklahoma State two weeks ago.
The Broncos (2-3, 1-1 MW) are now under .500 through five games for the first time since 2001.
“Football is a humbling game,” Boise State linebacker Riley Whimpey said. “Losing on The Blue is never acceptable, and we, as a team, need to be more consistent.”
The interception that bounced off Cobbs was part of a few late drives he and his teammates would rather forget. The Broncos’ possession just before that ended when Cobbs caught a pass and made a nice move to gain some yards, but he lost the ball on a fumble that the Wolf Pack recovered on Boise State’s 29-yard line.
Nevada (3-1) turned the fumble into a 38-yard field goal from kicker Brandon Talton for a 41-24 lead. Talton also connected on 37- and 38-yard field goals earlier in the game.
After leading 21-20 at halftime, three turnovers and 21 points from Nevada in the second half — 18 of those in the third quarter — proved to be too much for Boise State to overcome.
“We all know what the standard is here, and that is not it,” Boise State football coach Andy Avalos said. “It starts with me, and we have to re-establish the foundation of how we take care of the ball and how we operate.”
Boise State has won four Mountain West championships since joining the conference in 2011 and has played in the past four league title games. But the Broncos lost to San Jose State in the championship game last year, and Nevada now has a leg up in this year’s race. Boise State still has tough road games on the schedule at Fresno State and San Diego State.
The road to a Mountain West championship may not run through Boise State right now, and that’s weighing heavy on the players. That was obvious as quarterback Hank Bachmeier’s voice cracked with emotion during his postgame interview.
“There’s a lot of proud history and tradition here, and we honor it every single day,” Bachmeier said. “Losing back-to-back home games sucks. For us, it’s the small details and it starts today — recovering and getting back to it.”
Another second-half collapse
The series before Cobbs’ fumble ended when Boise State failed to convert on fourth-and-4 near midfield. It was all part of another costly second half for the Broncos, who were outscored 43-10 in the final two quarters of losses to UCF and Nevada.
“We’ve continuously had starts that are not going to help us win games in the second half,” Avalos said. “We’re winning the first half, but we have to come out and start fast (in the second).”
Clinging to a one-point lead, Boise State got the ball first in the second half on Saturday, but the Broncos didn’t have it long. On the first play of the third quarter, Nevada’s Tristan Nichols blew past a blocker and hit Bachmeier with a blind-side sack, which forced a fumble the Wolf Pack recovered on Boise State’s 18-yard line.
Nevada capitalized with a 2-yard touchdown run by running back Toa Taua for a 28-21 lead.
“In a game like this, we felt like it was going to come down to whoever made the fewest mistakes,” Nevada coach Jay Norvell said. “We were able to get some pressure on their quarterback. We felt like we could (coming into the game).”
The Wolf Pack, in fact, put all kinds of pressure on Bachmeier — sacking him five times, forcing him into an intentional grounding penalty, which counts as a sack, and leaving him to pick himself up off the turf after most plays.
“When we had time and I was getting rid of the ball on time, we were moving the ball,” Bachmeier said. “I set the protections, so that’s on me. We’ve just got to be on the same page: tight ends, running backs, O-line and myself.”
It wasn’t just the Broncos’ offense that fell apart after halftime. After limiting Nevada to 15 rushing yards in the first half, the defense saw the Wolf Pack rack up 113 yards in the third quarter alone. They finished the game with 130.
Taua eclipsed his rushing total from the first half on just two carries in the third quarter. He posted 114 of his 124 rushing yards in the second half and scored on a 22-yard run to put Nevada up 38-24 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.
“It comes down to everybody doing their one-eleventh,” Whimpey said. “It takes everybody, and when one of us doesn’t do our job and we don’t communicate, it gives the offense a chance to make a play.”
Problems with the ground game
As has been the case most of the season, Boise State couldn’t get its running game going consistently on Saturday.
The Broncos went into the game ranked No. 9 in the 12-team Mountain West with 87.5 rushing yards a game. They finished Saturday’s loss with just 22 net yards on the ground, marking the third time this season the Broncos failed, as a team, to rush for 100 yards.
Oregon transfer Cyrus Habibi-Likio led the Broncos with 46 yards on 10 carries, and Andrew Van Buren added 34 rushing yards on 8 carries, but 22 of those came on one burst. Boise State got 27 yards out of starting running back George Holani, who left the game in the first quarter and didn’t return.
Two bad snaps resulted in big losses, which contributed to the poor rushing yardage total.
Avalos said after the game that Holani aggravated the leg injury that kept him out of the Broncos’ season opener at UCF, but didn’t comment on how long he may be out.
Heavyweight quarterback showdown
Saturday’s game featured two of the top quarterbacks in the Mountain West.
Nevada’s Carson Strong was named the conference’s offensive player of the year last season and again this preseason. He has also earned plenty of hype as a potential top pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Bachmeier, a former four-star recruit, is now a three-year starter for the Broncos. Strong is getting more hype right now as a potential NFL signal caller, but judging by the stats, Bachmeier won Saturday’s head-to-head showdown.
The junior from Murrieta, California, completed 34-of-48 passes for 388 yards and four touchdowns. Bachmeier hit Cobbs (10 catches, 132 yards) on touchdown passes of 25 and 5 yards in the first half, and he watched as Khalil Shakir (4 catches, 70 yards) hauled in another of his patented one-hand catches in the end zone for a 14-10 lead late in the first quarter.
Bachmeier also hit Octavius Evans (6 catches, 85 yards) on a 4-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter.
Strong completed 25-of-38 passes for 263 yards and just one touchdown, to Cole Turner early in the game. But he had some help from a stingy, aggressive defense and running backs Taua and Devonte Lee, who scored a 2-yard touchdown to give Nevada a 17-14 lead early in the second quarter.
Strong led the Wolf Pack to its first win over Boise State since 2010, and their first win in Boise since 1997.
“Last Monday, I started the team meeting off by showing (the team) the Justin Tucker field goal, 66 yards, and I said, ‘How do you do something that’s never been done before?’” Norvell said. “It’s just your commitment, your commitment to the craft.”
Boise State hits the road next Saturday to face No. 13 BYU (5-0).
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 9:55 PM.
