Boise State blanks Nevada in second half, lumbers its way to Mountain West win

Boise State running back Dylan Riley, the team’s leading rusher, found tough sledding at Nevada, where he rushed just 12 times for 34 yards. | Boise State Athletics. BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — With 3:49 left in the third quarter, after a Boise State punt hit Nevada’s DJ Warnell and became a loose ball, there was the typical pileup on the recovery. Wolf Pack players pointed that they had it. The Broncos pointed the other direction. And the officials … just stood there. They talked. And stood. And talked some more. They looked down at Boise State’s Mana Tuoiti, who was still on the ground with a Wolf Pack player, each laying claim to the recovery. After considerable time, referee Cal McNeill announced that the ruling on the field — even though there had not been any indication of one — was that the ball indeed hit a Nevada player and was recovered by the Broncos. It was a fitting bit of silliness and intrigue Friday night at Mackay Stadium in Reno. Getting first-and-goal at the 6-yard line, the Broncos scored a touchdown — in another fitting moment, it took four plays and a penalty to go 6 yards — to get some cushion in a mostly forgettable game that saw them fight and stumble to a 24-3 victory. Boise State (6-2, 4-0 Mountain West), which led 10-3 when the key decision was made on the turnover, kept control of the conference’s regular-season race by avoiding what would have been an awful upset loss. The Wolf Pack (1-7, 0-4), who last won a Mountain West game on Oct. 21, 2023, got a valiant effort from their defense as they tried to pull off a surprise. They intercepted BSU quarterback Maddux Madsen, had a good goal-line stand in the first quarter to force a field goal, and forced five punts and a turnover on downs. But they eventually were worn down — BSU ran 74 plays to Nevada’s 52 — even though they held the Broncos to 308 total yards, well under their average of 478 per game. And Boise State’s defense victimized the conference’s worst offense, intercepting freshman quarterback Carter Jones three times — Jeremiah Earby had two of them — recovering two fumbles and holding the Pack to 247 total yards. “There’s going to be a lot of things on this film that we’ve gotta get fixed,” Broncos coach Spencer Danielson said, repeating a phrase he’s uttered after nearly every game. “I thought Nevada played hard, but I am proud of our guys for finding a way to finish.” Boise State pitched a shutout in the second half, holding Nevada to 99 yards on four possessions. And after Earby’s second interception, the Broncos put together a 15-play, 80-yard drive to eliminate the Wolf Pack’s hopes. Dylan Riley scored on a 1-yard run with 3:09 left in the game. Boise State had 12 possessions in the game but really had only two good scoring drives. Madsen finished 15-of-28 for 174 yards, and facing a team giving up 156 yards per game rushing, the Broncos’ high-powered ground game (205.6 yards a game) failed to get much traction, gaining 134 yards on 47 carries, a very poor 2.9 yards per rush. Sire Gaines led the way with 17 carries for 62 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown run in the first half. Madsen had a QB sneak for a score after the recover on the punt. “Just stay in the fight, stay in the fight,” Danielson said. “That’s what we had to do tonight.” The first half was mostly an inept showing in both directions. With the score tied 3-3, Nevada lined up for a 41-yard field goal that could have provided a 6-3 lead and momentum with 8:30 left in the second quarter. Instead, the Pack ran a laughably bad fake-kick play — on fourth-and-17, no less. A shovel pass was squashed by the Broncos, with Jayden Virgin-Morgan getting the tackle. Boise State failed to capitalized, though, with Madsen throwing an awful interception to Nevada’s Bishop Turner on the very next play. In business at the BSU 40-yard line, the Pack promptly gained one yard on three plays and punted. That set the stage for the Broncos’ shining first-half moment: a 13-play, 94-yard touchdown drive capped by the 2-yard Gaines run with 1:35 left before halftime. The big play was a 37-yard pass from Madsen to Cameron Bates — which Bates essentially stole after Nevada’s Edward Rhambo had the ball hit him right in the hands. Gaines got some redemption with his TD after fumbling on a third-and-goal run in the first quarter. Boise State recovered that and got a 21-yard field goal from Colton Boomer after falling behind 3-0. Jones finished 16-of-29 for 144 yards for Nevada, but had only one completion go more than 15 yards. He was intercepted by A’Marion McCoy on the first drive of the game and by Earby on the third. In between, the Wolf Pack had their best drive, going 57 yards and getting a 40-yard field goal from Joe McFadden. Nevada, which has now lost nine of the past 10 against Boise State, added to its ineffectiveness in the first half with seven penalties for 63 yards, and finished the game with 10 for 89 yards. Their longest play of the game was a 24-yard second-half run by Herschel Turner, who was a bright spot with 77 yards rushing on seven carries. Halftime of the homecoming game featured a ceremony for the 2010 Nevada football team, which was led by future San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The Broncos, led by Kellen Moore and ranked No. 3 in the nation, traveled to Reno that November looking to take down No. 19 Nevada, which had just one loss. Instead, the Wolf Pack emerged with a 34-31 win in overtime, the only blemish in a 12-1 season for Boise State. Moore threw for 348 yards and two touchdowns in that game, and Doug Martin — who died last weekend and was being honored by BSU this week — rushed for 152 yards and two TDs. Kaepernick threw for 259 yards and a score and rushed for 45 yards and another TD. Boise State wore blue stickers with “Doug” in orange lettering on its helmets Friday night. Martin died last weekend at age 36 while in police custody in Oakland after a home break-in. His family said through a sports agency statement that he was having mental health problems.The post Boise State blanks Nevada in second half, lumbers its way to Mountain West win appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com