Boise State may be half as good as the glory years past.

First half as good.

The score at half so far in 2016 is Boise State 83 Opponents 17.  The 2010 team, who lost to Nevada, outscored their opponents 369-55 in the first half. And, if you think about it, that’s how it has been at Boise State for some time.  Even though teams prepare for the Boise State offense, there is always a new wrinkle they didn’t count on or they just can’t execute what they prepared for. And, once the Boise State offense starts the scoring barrage, opponents offenses start pressing and abandons their game plan giving the Boise State defense an advantage.

It’s been a productive, vicious cycle.

Starting to get concerned with the way Boise State defensive players drop from injuries during games. Jabril Frazier, Gabe Perez, Tanner Vallejo and Evan Tyler all went down in this game. Best info I had on Vallejo was it was a leg injury of some type. If it happened in the first half, and I suspect it did, I hope it was precautionary to keep him out of the 2^nd half. Tyler is probably gone for several games if not the year. He will be missed. And, in listening to the Oregon State post game show and Coach Gary Anderson, Beaver QB Darrel Garretson had a leg injury that he nursed all week and just couldn’t make it work against Boise State. That is why they said he was taken out of the game.  The walk on who took his place had some success but as soon as he started looking at the pass rush and not downfield he was done. Worries me what would have happened had a more experienced QB been in that situation. Boise State was on their heels at that point.

Jeremy McNichol’s is the MVP of this team.

My Game Breakdown wasn’t too far off:

Offense: I thought Boise St would get a bend but don’t break look from OSU and they would have to earn their way down the field. The first 3 Boise St. TD drives were 9, 10 and 11 play drives.  The first two drives Rypien didn’t throw a pass longer than 10 yards but the 3^rd series he cut loose more. His yards per attempt were dow. Running the ball was a priority to me and that’s exactly what Boise St. did to control the game early. They also played well early getting out to a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Defense: I thought Garretson had to buy time with his feet in order to hide a poor o line. He couldn’t even do that with his injury and was replaced. He was sacked 3x and only threw for 53 yards. I thought both WR’s Boldin and Collins could be trouble but neither scored a TD. RB Nall was a problem with his burly runs.

I had Boise St. winning 42-17. I missed it at 38-24.  I didn’t see the special teams TD coming or the four straight three and out offensive efforts in the second half.  Boise St. did much better on 3^rd downs going 8-15. That’s because the average was about 3 and 6 to go vs last week’s 3 and 11.