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Broncos win the ‘fun’ way
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The Broncos finally broke out of the long play drought that has bugged the offense all season, and the defense played tough against a new starting quarterback as the Broncos scored 31 unanswered points en route to a 38-21 victory at Bronco Stadium Saturday night against San Jose State before a sellout crowd of 30, 342 fans.
“It was fun. We had fun tonight,” senior running back Lee Marks said.
It was fun for a lot of Broncos, too.
Eight players had at least two catches. Four players ran the ball at least eight times. Four had at least six tackles, and four different defenders sacked the Spartans quarterbacks.
It didn’t start off all that fun for the Broncos. On the third drive of the game, San Jose State quarterback J.P. Greco completed a 90-yard touchdown pass to John Broussard to put San Jose State up 7-0 early in the game.
Greco, a junior from Auburn, Calif., was starting in his first game at quarterback for the Spartans. Broussard caught Boise State cornerback Orlando Scandrick lost his footing as the ball near midfield, and he raced down the field for the long score.
But, that was about all the Spartans did on offense in the first half. Take away the long pass, and the BSU defense held San Jose to just 38 yards total offense.
The Broncos then went on a 31-0 run and a 31-7 halftime lead.
The first score for Boise State was a 13-yard run by freshman Ian Johnson. Despite leading the team in rushing each of the first five games, the score was the first of Johnson’s brief career.
Following the third three-and-out drive by San Jose State, a drive highlighted by a 27-yard pass from Jared Zabransky to Legedu Naanee was capped off by an 8-yard option keeper by Zabransky to give the Broncos a 14-7 lead.
Anthony Montgomery, who earlier missed a 47-yard field goal attempt, gave BSU a 17-7 lead after completing a 23-yard field goal.
The following drive, Greco fumbled the hand off and Chris Barrios recovered the ball. Four plays later, Zabransky finds Naanee for a 3-yard strike, and a 24-7 lead.
It got worse for the Spartans as Broussard fumbled a completion from Greco and Austin Smith picked up the loose ball and took it to the house-literally.
Smith ran from the left to the right side of the field and jumped into the Corey Barton Homes house on the corner of the North end zone. Unfortunately for the Broncos, Colt Brooks and Smith were both called for unsportsmanlike penalties on the return, and the Broncos started the drive-sans the score-at the Boise State 27.
The Spartans did make a game of it in the fourth quarter.
Adam Tafralis came in at quarterback for the Spartans in the third quarter and led San Jose to two scores on back-to-back drives, as the Spartans came within 10.
Tafralis found his favorite target, Rufus Skillern on both drives. The first was a 24-yard pass. The Spartans then converted an on-side kick, and scored on the drive.
But that was it. The Broncos defense continued to hit the quarterbacks, and the entire offense hard, forcing three fumbles on the night.
The Boise State defense had not forced a fumble all season until Saturday night. The defense also sacked the Spartans QBs four times and broke up 10 passes-the previous game-high was six against Hawaii.
Lee Marks scored on a 12-yard run with 6:46 left in the game to seal up the fourth straight win for Boise State and extend both the programs home and conference win streaks to 28 games.
Trevor Horn
