Boise State coach has ‘absolute confidence’ in staff despite another unlucky 7
Entering the fourth quarter of Boise State’s loss at San Diego State, the Broncos had 155 rushing yards and 19 passing yards.
To put that latter statistic into perspective, the team was flirting with history — of the wrong kind. The program’s worst passing game ever was 49 yards, which came all the way back in 1978.
The offense, being directed by backup quarterback Max Cutforth, was sputtering under the rain-soaked floodlights at Snapdragon Stadium. Without starting quarterback Maddux Madsen and two key receivers, the running game was getting all the attention — from BSU and the Aztecs’ defense.
By the end of the night, Boise State had called 41 running plays and 18 passing. But 10 of those passing plays came on the final drive of the game, when BSU was in desperation mode in a 17-7 loss.
Cutforth eventually clawed his way up to 104 passing yards, after the Aztecs (8-2, 5-1 Mountain West) sat back in a bit of a prevent defense. But up until that point, the team had been predictable, seemingly unwilling to let Cutforth drop back much at all.
That uninspiring play calling — which was certainly affected some by the rain — came after the Broncos (6-4, 4-2) had a bye week and led to one of the more insipid performances in recent history.
“As coaches, we’ve got to do a better job,” head coach Spencer Danielson said after the game. “We had some things going in the game that we didn’t use, got to see why, but we’ve got to execute better.”
Boise State has lost two straight games, and for the first time since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1996, has failed to score more than seven points in four different games in a single season.
In a strange bit of coincidence, the Broncos have but a single touchdown in every loss: 34-7 to South Florida, 28-7 to Notre Dame, 30-7 to Fresno State and Saturday night’s 17-7 setback. Only the Fresno loss came at home, the game in which Madsen was injured and Cutforth came in and struggled.
Though disappointed, Danielson stood by first-year offensive coordinator Nate Potter after the latest loss.
“I have absolute confidence in Nate Potter, absolute confidence in him, absolute confidence in our offensive staff,” Danielson said. “But obviously it’s not good enough from them, I’m not running from that.”
While everyone is accustomed to seeing Boise State run the football, the lack of creativity is what’s getting attention.
Boise State primarily ran the ball between the tackles all night, averaging 4 yards per carry — a stat propped up by a 20-yard run from redshirt freshman Sire Gaines, who ended the game with 78 yards. Sophomore Dylan Riley had 79 yards on 21 carries, with his longest run being 9 yards.
That run — right up the middle, with Riley breaking a tackle — was good for Boise State’s only score of the game, at the end of a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive in the second quarter that was preceded by four punts.
“We tried some different things that didn’t work out early; we’ve maybe got to come back to them. We can’t run from those things,” Danielson said. “I’m gonna look at it, we’re gonna have good communication as a staff, and see why we got stopped in critical moments.”
Needing to get established in the second half, which started with a 14-7 deficit, the Broncos punted on three straight possessions that netted 37 total yards. There were 14 runs and four pass plays on those drives.
Not having Madsen definitely affected things, and the team was without wide receive Chris Marshall, while WR Ben Ford is out for the season. Cutforth, who threw two interceptions and didn’t complete 50% of his passes in the loss to Fresno State, was making his first collegiate start.
There also was the torrential rain, which came and went throughout the game, slopped up the field a little and turned the game into a throwback affair. The Aztecs barely threw the ball either, getting just 17 yards passing on six completions. But their 277 rushing yards got the better of a Boise State defense that had to know what was coming.
“You’ve got two weeks to prepare for a team, and we didn’t play good enough, so obviously we didn’t do a good enough job,” Danielson said. “And that’s on me to look at what.”
