Pack, BSU put on show
Nevada may be beginning to close the competitive gap that has existed for so long between it and the Boise State Broncos.The Wolf Pack scored 67 points on nine touchdowns and two field goals against Boise State Sunday night. That is eight points more than Nevada has scored in the last six years against the Broncos.
In the last six years Boise State outscored Nevada 294-59, including a 38-7 win last year at Mackay Stadium.
The game looked like it could get out of hand early, when Boise State went up 28-14 on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Tharp to Sherm Blaser, but Nevada fought its way back into the game.
“Boise has done that to everyone they’ve played, and they’ve done it to us before. We’ve seen it,” coach Chris Ault said of Boise State’s ability to blow out opponents.
An All-Time Classic
Sunday’s thriller on the Smurf Turf in Boise, Idaho, made history in more ways than one.
The 136 total points scored by Nevada and Boise State is the most points ever scored in a Division-IA game since 1937 when the NCAA began keeping official records.
The previous high was the 134 points scored in Arkansas’s 71-63 seven-overtime victory over Kentucky on Nov. 1, 2003.
In addition it is the first quadruple overtime game in Western Athletic Conference history.
Also, several of Nevada’s players set new personal bests in the game.
Marko Mitchell had a career high 161 yards on four receptions and Luke Lippincott had a career-high four touchdowns.
Special Teams Play
Nevada’s special teams unit continued to struggle on Sunday.
After getting a punt return and a blocked field goal returned for touchdowns last weekend against Fresno State, Nevada was caught off guard in the second quarter when Boise State scored a touchdown with a fake field goal on fourth-and-eight.
The ball was snapped to wide receiver Tanyon Bissell, who hit an uncovered Ryan Putnam for a 33-yard touchdown.
After Kaepernick hit receiver Mike McCoy for a 41-yard touchdown to tie the game at 31 in the third quarter, the Broncos blocked kicker Brett Jaekle’s extra point that could have given the Wolf Pack a victory in regulation.
On kickoffs, Jaekle intentionally kicked the ball high in the air on kickoffs, frequently landing it around the 20-yard line, to prevent Boise State from making any big kick returns.
This resulted in the Broncos starting on a shorter field, even though they weren’t able to gash the Wolf Pack’s coverage teams like Freno State did last week.
Nevada’s kickoff return played well.
Sophomore Dwayne Sanders had his third consecutive game with at least 100 yards of kickoff returns, finishing with six kickoff returns for 144 yards.
Serious Support
Nevada fans could take a queue from their Boise State rivals.
Orange and blue tents covered the parking lot and it was nearly impossible to find anyone within a one-mile radius of the stadium who wasn’t sporting the team colors.
And almost every truck that drove by had orange and blue Boise State flags flying.
The announced attendance for Sunday’s game was 30,394, which is over Bronco Stadium’s supposed capacity of 30,000.
“You know our fans were unbelievable tonight,” Boise State coach Chris Peterson said. “They were impressive and there is no question that the fans, once again, helped us win that game.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 2:20 am and is filed under Football, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
