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Defense leads to Boise State offense
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The Boise State football team reached another success marker last Saturday. With a decisive road win at Utah the Broncos appear to have atoned for the high-scoring dual against Hawaii just a week earlier.
Although BSU beat both schools to remain undefeated on the season, there was a significant difference in defensive execution in the six days of preparation between games.
“I think as far as defense we really had a statement to make after last week,” linebacker Korey Hall said after the Utah game. “Hawaii kind of threw the ball all over us. We weren’t happy with that performance at all. All week we were trying to bring
the energy to practice and focus on the mental game. I think we did that.”
Hall has done his part to help clean up some of the problems exposed by the run-and-shoot offense of Hawaii. He intercepted two passes against Utah and made a team-high eight tackles.
Both interceptions led to eventual points by the offense. Hall received Western Athletic Conference “Player of the Week” honors for his effort.
Hall currently leads the Bronco defense in tackles (47) and interceptions (3). The next best tackler on the team (Marty Tadman) has barely more than half of Hall’s total with 26 tackles.
“He’s the heart and soul of our defense and our team as well,” Bronco Head Coach Chris Petersen said. “It’s always interesting when big time players, they step up in big games. Korey continues to do that.”
As far as the rest of the defense is concerned, dominance has been the theme for the 2006 Broncos.
Aside from the 34 points allowed against Hawaii, BSU’s two worst defensive games were against Oregon State (14 points) and Wyoming (10 points). The Broncos also held Sacramento State scoreless on the opening night of the season.
After five games, the Bronco defense has helped to fuel the offensive attack by making plays that put the offense in great
position to score throughout every game.
As a team, Boise State has forced nine more turnovers than they have lost. Partial credit should be given to quarterback Jared Zabransky for minimizing turnovers offensively.
However, the Bronco defense has recovered four of five fumbles and intercepted opponents 10 times already this year.
“I think there’s a lot of potential still in this defense to continue and dominate teams,” Petersen said. “I thought they’d come back and be fired up, but I didn’t think they’d come out and hold Utah to three points and really get the turnovers that we got either.”
While the Broncos have only been on the road twice so far this season, it has been the defense that stepped forward both times and looked most impressive. After BSU hosts Louisiana Tech on Saturday, the Broncos will travel to New Mexico State and Idaho in consecutive weeks. Neither New Mexico State nor Idaho has posted impressive records to start the year.
When a defense is playing like the Bronco defense is, the odds of staying undefeated improve drastically.
Jake Garcin
