No climbing this Mountain: Boise State falls apart vs. San Diego State, loses title shot
The curse of the middle eight came back to haunt the Boise State football team at the worst possible time.
Struggles in the final four minutes of the first half and the first four of the second played a major role in the Broncos’ struggles early this season, when they had a losing record heading into their bye week. They seemed to figure it out during a four-game winning streak after the October bye, but reverted to their old ways in the regular-season finale at No. 22 San Diego State on Friday.
Boise State jumped out to a 13-point lead by the second quarter, but the Aztecs reeled off 24 unanswered points and knocked off the Broncos 27-16 in a rare morning game that kicked off at 10 a.m. Mountain time.
The loss knocked Boise State out of contention for its fifth straight appearance in the Mountain West championship game. The Broncos needed a win and an Air Force loss to UNLV, but their loss to the Aztecs made the results of that game irrelevant to BSU.
As it turned out, the Falcons (9-3, 6-2 MW) walloped UNLV 48-14.
San Diego State (11-1, 7-1 MW) will host the championship game next Saturday against Utah State (9-3, 6-2 MW) — a team the Broncos beat easily on the road this fall, 27-3. The Aggies defeated Air Force in the regular season, giving them the Mountain Division title.
It’s another learning opportunity in a season full of lessons, Boise State football coach Andy Avalos said.
“You’ve got to walk through the valley before you can climb up the mountain,” he said. “We’ve been through it this year. We’ve battled and when we walked out of the locker room just now, we all thanked each other. It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go today, but that’s not going to stop us from growing what we have because we know what it is.”
The Broncos (7-5, 5-3 MW) have another game to play. They’ve qualified for a bowl game for the 24th straight season, and their destination is expected to be announced on Sunday, Dec. 5. Avalos said he is thankful to have a shot at ending the season on a winning note.
“We’ve done an unbelievable job reestablishing this foundation, and we played an unbelievable team tonight and they were better than us,” Avalos said. “That doesn’t take away anything from what we’ve built. (The players) learn from situations like this. They learn from days like this and they’re able to move forward. We’ve already done that this year.”
Boise State surges ahead
The Broncos built a 16-3 lead thanks to two touchdown passes by quarterback Hank Bachmeier and a record-setting field goal from Jonah Dalmas. His 22-yard kick in the second quarter broke former Boise State kicker Tyler Rausa’s single-season record of 25 made field goals — and came after he had hooked an extra point off the goal post.
San Diego State made a quarterback change not long after that, and it made all the difference. Senior Jordon Brookshire replaced starter Lucas Johnson and sparked the Aztecs’ 24-point spurt with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Matthews.
Kicker/punter Matt Araiza’s second field goal of the second half cut Boise State’s lead to 16-13 by halftime, with both of those scores coming in the half’s final 2 minutes.
Brookshire then picked up a first down with his legs and completed a 38-yard pass to get San Diego State in position to score on its first possession of the third quarter. Running back Greg Bell capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown dive on fourth-and-goal to give the Aztecs their first lead of the game.
Brookshire also called his own number on a 16-yard touchdown run later in the third quarter. He finished the game with a team-high 46 rushing yards and completed 11-of-15 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown.
“We got them to switch to more of a passing offense, which was good for us because that they wanted to come in and establish the run,” said Boise State nickel Kekaula Kaniho, who played in the 60th game of his career on Friday. “We just need to do better at making adjustments, and after those adjustments executing our techniques.”
San Diego State coach Brady Hoke said Johnson came into the game with a nagging injury and was pulled after taking a couple of early hits.
“I told (Brookshire) on Monday or Tuesday that we would probably have to count on him,” Hoke said. “He understood that and he had been preparing very well, and it came to fruition.”
Broncos’ offense gets stymied
While San Diego State’s offense got better as the game went on, Boise State’s went dormant. The Broncos posted 248 yards of offense in the first half but managed just 71 in the second — only 17 in the fourth quarter.
They had three straight punts at one point and then turned the ball over on downs.
“We just couldn’t execute and we couldn’t do our jobs and win our one-on-ones,” said Khalil Shakir, who moved into a tie for No. 9 all-time at Boise State with his 20th career touchdown catch. “We know what it’s supposed to look like. We scored 16 points fast, but for whatever reason, we just couldn’t execute and finish the game.”
Shakir said after the game that he plans to play in whatever bowl game the Broncos end up in.
San Diego State’s defense pitched the second-half shutout, intercepted three passes on the game, and racked up four sacks and countless hits on the Broncos’ quarterbacks. The Aztecs also snapped Boise State running back George Holani’s string of three straight 100-yard rushing games, limiting him to 70 yards on 20 carries.
Avalos said this week that San Diego State’s defensive line would be the best the Broncos had faced all season, and the Aztecs lived up to the hype, he said.
“Their defensive front was very aggressive, and the amount of tackles for loss and the sacks were a big part of the game,” Avalos said. “There were situations where we were in field position even late in the game to turn it into a one-possession game and we lost field position on sacks that knocked us out of field goal range.”
Bachmeier finished the game 21-for-40 for 222 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was replaced late in the fourth quarter by USC transfer Jack Sears, who was sacked on his first play and threw an interception on a late desperation heave.
Mirroring what Hoke said about his quarterback, Avalos said he pulled Bachmeier because he was already banged up coming into the game and didn’t want to risk any further injury.
“Hank had gotten hit a ton of times and his mobility is not great and we weren’t able to protect him,” Avalos said. “Hank did an unbelievable job, considering all the pressure and hits ... Through the course of the season Hank has been battling. I’m not going to go into all the details, but he’s wearing a knee brace for a reason.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 4:01 PM.
