It should’ve been expected, having been played on the oddest of weeknights, but this game had just about everything and then some.
No. 2 Boise State (7-0, 3-0 Western Athletic Conference) defeated the Bulldogs (3-5, 2-2 WAC) 49-20 on Tuesday night in front of a weathered crowd who had to endure mother nature’s elements throughout.
Without starting kicker Kyle Brotzman, the Boise State offense knew it would be called on to convert. Junior quarterback Kellen Moore made sure it delivered. Moore completed 20-of-28 passes for 298 yards and two touchdowns.
Moore connected with senior receiver Austin Pettis late in the first quarter on a six-yard touchdown pass and later hit a wide-open Tyler Shoemaker on a 32-yard strike midway through the second quarter.
Shoemaker took advantage of the heightened number of throws coming his direction. The redshirt junior eclipsed 100 receiving yards in the first half, the second Bronco this season to accomplish the feat. Senior receiver Titus Young has done it twice this season against Oregon State and San Jose State.
Shoemaker finished with a career-high 124 yards, his second-career 100-yard receiving game, and first since catching four passes for 105 yards against Bowling Green last season.
“It was just kind of one of my nights,” Shoemaker said. “We always like to come out and start fast, so I was lucky to be part of that. The looks went my way.”
It wasn’t the single game numbers that stood out about Moore, but the all-time BSU records that are now vividly within his sights.
Moore’s 28th career 200-yard passing effort tied him with former Bronco standout, Bart Hendricks (1997-2000), for most in school history. Moore’s two first-half touchdown passes tied him for the school record with Ryan Dinwiddie (2000-03) at 82.
“I think it’s awesome. If you’ re in any category as some of those great guys, the guys who’ve played before me, they’ve done a great job,” Moore said. “It’ s just my job to carry on the quarterback tradition that we’ve been having here for a while.”
BSU junior running back Doug Martin ran for BSU’s first touchdown on a two-yard run in the first quarter and the Broncos’ last score when he busted 20 yards through a hole on the outside of La Tech’s defense in the fourth quarter.
Martin’s 150 yards on 21 carries broke his career-high that he set earlier in the season against OSU when he ran for 138 yards. The effort marked his third 100-yard game this season. He ran for 105 yards against Wyoming.
Pettis caught and threw for a touchdown pass for the second time this season when he hit Moore on a 7-yard pass late in the third quarter, by far the best play of the night for the Broncos.
“It’s fun getting touchdown passes. I thought there was a 10 percent chance that it would get called, but it was actually called. It was fun,” Moore said.
At least Louisiana Tech can say it left it all on the field. The Bulldogs seemed to catch the Broncos off-guard several times during the game, utilizing trick plays and putting the hurry in the hurry-up offense. At times, it would take La Tech less than eight seconds between offensive snaps.
“Yesterday in our pregame meetings, coach Pete said that this is our chance to show our brand and sell ourselves to the nation,” sophomore linebacker J.C. Percy said. “We said that out there on the field and I feel like we were able to do that.”
Percy’s 14 tackles (seven solo) led the team and was his career-high.
La Tech’s first quarter touchdown, which tied the score momentarily at 7-7, were the first points scored on BSU in the last 82 minutes, 26 seconds. The Bronco defense has gone 80-plus minutes without allowing a score twice during the season.
Boise State has held the lead or been tied since the 1:09 mark of the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech, a span that has now reached 361 minutes and nine seconds.
Bulldog junior running back Lennon Creer put in a hard days work, gashing BSU’s defense for 157 yards on 35 carries and two touchdowns. Creer was by far the most physical player on the field and led all rushers on the night
“Their running back (Creer) is real good. We’re waiting for that, we’re waiting for a dogfight,” senior nickel back Winston Venable said. “That’s football and you’re going to see that more. We’ve got more games like this to play.”
The Bulldogs took a few plays right of BSU’s playbook by running two statue of liberty plays and a flea-flicker, not to mention an onside kick that was called back due to a penalty.
Petersen said he was not caught off-guard by La Tech’s risky play calling and that he expects every opponent for the remainder of the season to take the same approach. Starting with Hawai’i on Nov. 6, a team Petersen openly said he’s worried about considering the play from the secondary that gave up 222 passing yards to Bulldog senior quarterback Ross Jenkins.