Blocked punts, stifling defense give Boise State blowout win in ‘special’ home finale
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Boise State 37, New Mexico 0
Boise State scored two first-half touchdowns on blocked punts and got more than 100 rushing yards out of running back George Holani for the third week in a row in a shutout of New Mexico.
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The Boise State football team needed a win over New Mexico on Saturday for a slew of reasons.
To stay in the race for a Mountain West championship.
To level its regular-season home record after some tough Albertsons Stadium losses this season.
To give a proper sendoff to more than 20 seniors in what was likely their final game on The Blue.
And to sustain the momentum of a post-bye rebirth that hasn’t seen the Broncos lose.
But senior safety Tyreque Jones had even more on his mind.
Jones was also playing in honor of his grandmother, who died two days before the Broncos’ season-opening loss to UCF. Jones called that one of the worst games of his career, but he made up for it in the home finale and did his grandmother proud in a 37-0 win over the Lobos.
Jones scooped up a blocked punt and scored a touchdown for the first points of the game. That sparked a run of 17 straight points from the Broncos’ special teams, which put New Mexico on its heels and inspired Boise State to slam the door on any upset hopes its league foe might have had.
Jones wore a T-shirt from his grandmother’s memorial service underneath his shoulder pads and wrote “RIPGV” on his wrist tape on Saturday night.
“She was special to me,” he said. “I’ve dedicated this year to her. I feel like it’s helped me elevate my game.”
The Jones touchdown was just the first of two blocked-punt scores that Boise State had in the first half, and its defense pitched a shutout for the first time since 2015 as the Broncos improved their record at Albertsons Stadium to 3-3 this season. Boise State hasn’t finished with a losing record at home since 1997, and maintaining that streak was important to the players.
“When we fell to 0-3 (at home), we started our whole process of just locking back into the fundamentals and techniques we needed to key in on to win these games,” Jones said. “I feel like we did a good job of rebuilding our foundation, starting over and elevating it from there.”
After heading into its bye week with a losing record, the Broncos have reeled off four straight wins, outscoring their opponents 128-46. The shutout they recorded was the first since a 55-0 shellacking of Hawaii in 2015.
A special night on The Blue
Thanks to Jones’ scoop and score, Boise State (7-4, 5-2 MW) had a 7-0 lead before its offense recorded a first down on Saturday.
And fittingly on senior night, Jones’ score was set up by another senior. After New Mexico went three-and-out on its first possession, fifth-year senior Kekaula Kaniho zoomed in to easily block the punt that Jones returned from the 7-yard line.
It was the first blocked kick of Kaniho’s career and Boise State’s second special teams touchdown of the season — following an 81-yard punt return by wide receiver Stefan Cobbs in the home opener against UTEP.
It also was a sign of things to come. Early in the second quarter, backup safety Alexander Teubner rushed right up the middle and laid out to get a hand on another punt. Dylan Herberg scooped up the ball up at New Mexico’s 6-yard line and scored for a 17-0 lead.
It marked only the second time Boise State has scored on two blocked punts in a game since the Broncos became an FBS program. They first accomplished the feat in a 52-21 home win over Colorado State last season.
“It was a great job by coach (Stacy) Collins of finding something there and being able to get the guys squared away to execute that,” Boise State coach Andy Avalos said. “The last couple weeks, we’ve been close on a couple, but the boys were going to get it done for coach Collins this week.”
Boise State got a 27-yard field goal from kicker Jonah Dalmas in between the two blocked punts. He went on to connect on field goals of 46 and 42 yards in the second half, and tied Tyler Rausa’s single-season record of 25 made field goals.
“That’s what the game is about — putting points on the board,” Avalos said. “Do we want to score touchdowns every time we get the ball? I think everybody does. But the most important thing is putting points on the board and creating momentum.”
Boise State’s offense produced its first points of the game on the final play of the first half. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier (11-for-22, 146 yards) connected with senior wide receiver Khalil Shakir on a 56-yard touchdown pass for a 24-0 lead.
Shakir racked up 112 receiving yards before halftime and finished the game with seven catches for 116 yards. It was the 10th 100-yard game of his career, which tied him with former Boise State star Titus Young for the fifth most in program history.
“(Bachmeier) slung that, and I honestly didn’t think I was going to get there,” said Shakir, who faked an out pattern and blew by a completely fooled New Mexico defender. “Honestly, for me, I was just going to try to beat them with speed. We knew they couldn’t hang with our speed.”
Boise State running back George Holani racked up more than 100 rushing yards for the third game in a row, finishing with 114, and the Broncos got a 1-yard touchdown run out of backup quarterback Jack Sears in the fourth quarter. But it was Boise State’s defense that stole the show on Saturday.
Historic defensive performance for Broncos
Boise State held New Mexico (3-8, 1-5 MW) to 46 yards of offense in the first half, and the Lobos finished the game with just 101. It was the fewest yards the Broncos have allowed in a game since they gave up 33 to Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl in 2015.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” Avalos said. “That offense has had explosive pass plays and they had explosive run plays last week against Fresno (State). They’ve been able to do some things, so our coaches being able to get our defense ready to go was big.”
New Mexico head coach Danny Gonzales didn’t mince words about his team after the game.
“Our offense is a joke right now,” he said.
New Mexico attempted only seven passes, completing two for a grand total of 18 yards, and the Broncos limited the Lobos’ option attack to 83 yards on the ground. Boise State sacked the Lobos’ quarterbacks four times, led by linebacker Ezekiel Noa with two, and safety JL Skinner nabbed an interception in the third quarter — his second of the season.
The Broncos forced nine punts.
“I feel like it was elite at all three levels,” Jones said of the performance. “We talked about it as far as being that relentless defense that can actually finish four quarters of a game.”
Big picture for Boise State
Boise State did its part to stay in contention for a fifth straight appearance in the Mountain West championship game with Saturday’s win. But even though first-place Utah State got hammered in a big upset by Wyoming, the Broncos didn’t end the day in outstanding shape in the Mountain Division.
The Cowboys’ 44-17 win left Utah State (8-3, 5-2) in a three-way tie with Boise State and Air Force (8-3, 5-2) atop the standings, after the Falcons pulled off a dramatic triple-overtime win at Nevada on Friday night.
Now the schedule turns against the Broncos a little. They need a win at West Division leader San Diego State (10-1, 6-1) on Friday (10 a.m. Mountain time, CBS) and a loss by Air Force at UNLV (2-9, 2-5) to make it back to the title game.
Utah State’s loss to Wyoming was its second within the division, eliminating the Aggies — who play New Mexico next week — if all three teams win out to finish 6-2, because Boise State and Air Force both have just one loss to a divisional opponent. The Falcons then own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Broncos because of their 24-17 win at Albertsons Stadium, so they would advance to the championship game.
If UNLV upsets Air Force and Boise State finishes tied with Utah State atop the standings, the Broncos win the division based on their 27-3 victory over the Aggies in the regular season.
