The Boise State Broncos stalled in their 17-7 loss to San Diego State Saturday night. From the opening kickoff, the team struggled to establish any rhythm on offense.
The defeat highlighted Boise State’s offensive struggles this year, which became even more evident with multiple starters out due to injury, including starting quarterback Maddux Madsen and wide receiver Chris Marshall.
Neither team could get anything going early, exchanging punts throughout the first quarter. The Aztecs struck first with a 1-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak by Jayden Denegal, which capped off a six-play, 80-yard drive. The series was highlighted by a 41-yard rush by running back Christian Washington.
Boise State evened the score at seven on the next possession, with a nine-yard touchdown run by running back Dylan Riley. The score finished off a 14-play, 75-yard drive that took 7 minutes 46 seconds off the clock.
After Riley’s touchdown, the Broncos’ offense had a difficult time moving the ball and only had one other drive that went more than 15 yards. San Diego State responded with another touchdown run by Denegal to enter halftime up 14-7.
Neither team could find a breakthrough in the second half, with the only score from either team coming on a 47-yard field goal by San Diego State with 10:51 left in the game.
All three phases of the game for the Broncos struggled. Although their defense allowed their fourth-fewest points this season, missed tackles proved to be costly, leading to the Aztecs’ dominance on the ground. The defense gave up 277 rushing yards in comparison to their own 164. Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson noted these struggles in the postgame press conference.
“We got worn down too much on defense,” Danielson said. “We can’t have a team rush for over 200 yards on us in any game. It’s very fixable, we didn’t play with the right fundamentals and technique and we also missed way too many tackles.”
While the Broncos’ rushing defense has struggled this season, they have had an elite pass defense this season, allowing just 52 passing yards over their last two games. This includes 17 passing yards allowed on Saturday — the fewest the program has allowed in a game since moving up to the FBS in 1996. However, their offensive struggles were too big to overcome. Since 2000, Boise State is the second highest scoring team in America at over 37 points per game and that is now the fourth time this season they’ve only scored seven points.
Boise State committed key penalties and had negative plays throughout the game, which kept the offense from moving the sticks. Running back Sire Gaines had two crucial penalties late in the game, which wiped out big plays. These led to the offense converting only five of fourteen third downs.
“Offensively, we had a couple of critical penalties that hurt us in drives,” Danielson said. “We couldn’t sustain some of the drives we needed to.”
The loss dropped the Broncos to third place in the conference. With a record of 6-4 and after losses in the last two games, the Broncos are unlikely to make it to the conference championship.
The Broncos will be back at home on Nov. 22 against Colorado State, which is currently on a four-game losing streak.
