Gameballs for Boise State versus Tulsa
by Kevan Lee on Oct 15, 2009 8:08 AM PDT
in Boise State football
35 comments
The Broncos got out of Tulsa with a hard-earned victory on Wednesday night, pushing their record to 6-0 and crossing off one of the toughest road tests left on the schedule. Fistpumps all around.
With the game still fresh in our minds, let's hand out some gameballs to the deserving players, plays, and moments from Boise State's big win. I'll list my gameball recipients after the jump. Feel free to add yours in the comments.
Reader's choice award for player of the game
What can I say? You guys love yourselves some Doug Martin. The sophomore tailback ended the night with 112 yards and a hair under five yards per carry, highlighted by a 70-yard gross on a long third quarter Bronco drive.
Did Martin look better than Avery did against Tulsa? For sure, Martin was hitting the hole with reckless abandon and dragging defenders for extra yardage. He wasn't blowing past helpless defenders like he was against Bowling Green, but his quickness and vision worked really well with the blocks he was getting up front. Lou Holtz credited his success to some great cutback runs, and the old Lou-ster might have been onto something.
At any rate, Martin looked super for long stretches against the Golden Hurricane. If he could have muscled his way into the end zone in the third quarter or past the first down sticks on BSU's last drive, his night would have been even better.
Best Boise-State-like play-calling
Tulsa
The Golden Hurricane's playbook was most definitely on display for the world to see last night, as TU did just about everything short of the center sneak to find something that worked against the Broncos. A WR pass caught the Broncos peeking on Tulsa's first touchdown, and some serious misdirection and playaction led to the GH's last score.
The Tulsa offense in general had a lot of sneaky elements that you have come to expect seeing from the Broncos. Reverses, screens, and the like were all used to varying degrees of success by the Golden Hurricane. Which begs the question: Who is Boise State saving their playbook for? Idaho? Nevada? Next year's VaTech game?
Subway sub of the game
Potter and Kellogg teamed up to affect change on Boise State's starting offensive line for the fourth time in six games. And they looked good doing it.
Potter apparently jumped Matt Slater on the depth chart, and Kellogg came in for a homesick (or, rather, sick at home) Kevin Sapien and dinged up Brenel Myers. It will be interesting to see what the lineup will be for Boise State's next game against Hawaii.
Obligatory Kellen Moore reference
Kellen Moore
He's good.
Postgame comment theme that is so spot on
Who cares about the polls and rankings?
The Boise State - Tulsa game was thrilling, interesting, and a lot of fun to watch. Coverage of the Boise State - Tulsa game was downright unbearable.
True football fans don't watch the game to see how big a blowout will be compared to another team's blowout, yet that's what college football has come to. OBNUG readers and commenters like OBNUG Intern and MKingery were spot on with their assessments. Buying into the BCS and the rankings is unhealthy and ludicrous. I'll let csf68 pick up the thought from there.
I am getting really bored with the over evaluation of a win. Not having a playoff in NCAA FB is sucking the joy out of close wins. This game was a fun game to watch, yet BSU fans will treat it as a moral loss; because we didn’t run up the score! The weekly beauty contest from the panel of "quality win" judges is insane. I could not believe my ears when I heard the announcers comparing Oklahoma’s win to BSU’s win over Tulsa. That is the kind of speculation we used to do in elementary school; that kind of BS talk has now penetrated college football’s daily sports talk shows…(i.e.) We beat Oregon by 11 and Oregon beat Cal by 40 points; (I whip out my calculator) according to my calculations we could beat Cal by 51 points! Right? But wait…Fresno beat UC Davis by 51 points and we beat Freso by 17 points…but, we only beat UC Davis by 18 points instead of my calculated 68 points. WARNING, SYSTEM MELTDOWN…DATA CAN NOT COMPUTE…WARNING INFORMATION OVERLOAD…AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN SERIES IMPLEMENTED.
I WAS JUST LEARNING ... TO ... LOVE. [/office'd!]
Sorest loser, emphasis on "loser"
The best offensive player on the field for Tulsa was far and away Damaris Johnson. Forgive the Boise State defense if they can't all be more like him.
"They don't have the most athletic guys, but they're a good team and they played hard."
Boise State: Getting it done with slow-twitch mouth breathers since 1999.
Two-point conversion of the year
Not only was Efaw's conversion important in the game's big picture, it was a really good play. The sophomore tight end snagged Austin Pettis' lob with one hand, like Paul J. Schneider reaching for an apple fritter at the media buffet. Who says Boise State players aren't athletic? Oh, right; that was Damaris Johnson.
The Coach Pete face
Coach Pete
Is it just me or does it seem like Coach Pete ages a year every time the Broncos play a football game?
Boise State defense kryptonite
The big play
Somewhere, Ryan Mathews was smiling. For the second straight ESPN telecast, the Broncos were victimized by the big play, allowing two 50-plus-yard TDs to the Golden Hurricane. Is it a product of the Boise State defense being too aggressive? Would Bronco fans sacrifice some of that aggressiveness for a little more caution?
Best impersonation of Austin Pettis
Gallarda is listed as Boise State's starter at tight end, but when it comes to catching the ball, he typically takes a back seat to the handsier Kyle Efaw. Well, not tonight.
Gallarda flashed paws that Bronco fans have rarely seen from the big TE. His first two catches of the game went for TDs, but they weren't even your garden variety TE touchdowns. The first was a slick grab in the back corner of the end zone where he tapped two toes and nearly a third before falling to the ground with the reception. His second TD catch came as he crossed the back of the end zone and snagged a Kellen Moore pass that was intentionally thrown behind him.
What's next? A Tommy Gallarda jump ball on the goalline?
Lou Holtz homer tie award
Referees
Rarely do I nitpick a referee performance that actually helps out the Broncos, but there is something to be said for last night's zebra crew. Many of their calls were good. Two of them were pretty bad. A phantom pass interference penalty on a Titus Young deep ball was as bogus as they come. Then in the fourth quarter, Tulsa was penalized for a sideline infraction when a coach bumped into a referee.
(Award history: Lou Holtz sported a blue and orange tie (HT: Butte Rat) to the game last night, perfectly complementing his orange fake bake. Holtz takes his homerism seriously.)
Party of the year
Ryan Winterswyk and Shea McClellin's sack party
A lot has been written in the postgame about the effort of Boise State's defensive line. I'd like to jump on that bandwagon.
Winterswyk and McClellin combined for 5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks, spending more time in the Tulsa backfield than Tulsa's huddle did. Unfortunately for McWinterslellin, Bronco fans will now be expecting these kind of numbers every week from now until forever.
Honorable mention for almost completely changing the game
Boise State kick coverage
On the game's opening kickoff, Travis Stanaway popped kick returner Damaris Johnson, forcing the ball onto the turf. Tulsa recovered, and we had ourselves a close game.
Early in the second quarter, following Boise State's go-ahead touchdown, Brotzman blooped the kickoff short and into the waiting arms of a Tulsa returner who got nailed by Jerrell Gavins and coughed the ball up. Tulsa recovered, and we had ourselves a close game.
Those fumbles will go Boise State's way eventually. Of this, I am 40 to 50 percent certain.
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Spot on!
Easy to forget the two turnovers that could’ve been. Those would have been game changers for the Broncos.
Kellen Moore
He’s good.
He’s really, really good.
FIRE BRUCE BOCHY NOW!!!!!!
AND TAKE BRIAN SABEAN WITH HIM!!!!!
I was shocked when I found out...
That Kellen had 10 incomplete passes last night. Still hit connected on nearly 70%, but there were stretches were it looked like he couldn’t miss.
Avery dropped two passes…Pettis almost came down with a tough one in the endzone…Titus was a hairs breadth from hauling in that 70-yarder.
Get those ones back and Kellen would’ve been all-world last night.
by Drew Roberts on Oct 15, 2009 8:58 AM PDT up reply actions
That Pettis drop.
I would really like to hear what AP thought about that pass. Moore is looking like a Peyton Manning. Soon, he should call his receivers on it:
“What!? You thought I couldn’t get that pass to you? PSSH! It will be there. Just catch the ball.”
"You know where i'm from, a little suspicion about one's true identity and motives is considered good manners."
-- Nale
Lou's Tie
Loved watching Lou’s tie – showing the Bronco love. He had a lot of good things to say last night.
Great article!
Players of the Game who have never set foot on a football field, at least as a Bronco
1. Cullen Moore
2. Doug Harper
3. Eon Johnson (apparently he graduated last year)
Catch me on the BroncoNation Podcast!
What are we waiting for?
The Tulsa offense in general had a lot of sneaky elements that you have come to expect seeing from the Broncos. Reverses, screens, and the like were all used to varying degrees of success by the Golden Hurricane. Which begs the question: Who is Boise State saving their playbook for? Idaho? Nevada? Next year’s VaTech game?
I was thinking the exact same thing!! (see the new OBNUG blackberry group game chat thread for confirmation) Where were all the formation shifts we’re used to seeing? Where were the standard play-action, boot-legs, screens, Wild Avery’ies, etc.? There were a few, but not as many as we’d expect. We’re handing the ball off to Martin and Avery on 1st and 2nd down, and credit the Tulsa defense for stopping them half the time, but it was the 2nd down and long play calling that dissapointed me. On 2nd down and long, you can do so many creative play calls, but instead we just try to run it up the gut again. I mean, c’mon, Coach, is that all we can come up with? I know we’ve got a few plays in that playbook somewhere that could get a few more yards. Why is it that we’re the most creative on 2-point conversions this year, but not the rest of the drive? Do we feel the need to establish ourselves as a traditional offense first? I don’t know, but I expected more out of this nationally-watched game. Tulsa looked more like Boise State than Boise State. (minus the losing part)
As I said on another thread
very vanilla offense as of late.
Why the change?
Opinions?
Boise State - The best in all the land (The "land" being Idaho, and large parts of California, Oregon, and Nevada.)
Some theories
This is a young team. BSU is holding stuff back until the team can be trusted with the basics.
Change on the O-line. Would we be seeing fancy plays by now if the O-line had stayed the same since Week One? I think so.
No Vinny Perretta or Tanyon Bissell. I don’t see why Austin Pettis couldn’t do the trick, but what do I know?
Philosophy change. Boise State will become a traditional running team if it’s the last thing it does.
I certainly don’t believe that the Broncos are saving their playbook for something. It just doesn’t make sense at this point. There’s nothing to save it for. I understand going vanilla against UCD, but Tulsa could very well be the toughest game left on the schedule. I’m worried that if we didn’t see it Wednesday night, we might not see it again all season.
What do you think?
"I eat success for breakfast - with skim milk!" - Tony Perkis
Hmmm
Excellent, concise thoughts here Kevan per usual. My impulse is to suggest that Harsin and Pete have some undefined “mojo” moment that they use to dial up th egadgets. But that doesnt fit; both are compellingly logical “Mr. Spock” types when it comes to deconstrucitng htier offense. Plus, and augmenting your point, even if you threw in a sprinkling of gadgets that wouldnt fundamentally alter the dynamic of the offensive scheme we saw last night. The Broncos played Maginot line; we’re used to der blitzkrieg mein bruden! Seig! ooops sorry-I’ll sit down now.
maybe
Maybe all of the above possible explanations are true. But i do not believe that the Coaches would “dumb-down” their playcalling or playbook for the sake of the players on the field. That doesn’t sound like Coach Pete’s style to me. I tend to lean towards the explanation of re-establishing the power running game if it’s the last thing they do. I don’t see us pulling out all the stops against any of our remaining scheduled opponents, but without a doubt we are all worried at the mediocre playcalling of late.
by CaptainBronco on Oct 17, 2009 5:17 PM PDT up reply actions
In what aspect?
Are you saying the offense is more vanilla overall? Less misdirection, shifts and pizazz throughout the game? I agree.
Was the playcalling too conservative in the 4th quarter? I am not so sure. The line was dominating for most of the 3rd quarter and the Broncos continued to try to pound the ball early in the fourth quarter.
The next possession was part clock management and part stubborness to reestablish the run.
After another punt the Broncos opened a series by throwing a just-miss bomb to Titus Young. They followed that up with two running plays.
Then they tried to run out the clock with 3 running plays on the next series. At the time I felt they could have run sometime of playaction boot with a pass to Brockel or some other short passing play. But if the ball is dropped we would really be questioning why they didn’t run time of the clock.
If Moore connects with Titus on the bomb, we are all talking today about how Petersen has regained the killer instinct. I don’t think he has ever lost it, but he is trying to put this young team in a position to win. That might mean some things look a little more traditional.
"...east and west is the problem, north and south the solution."
I can agree with that.
But I have always liked the misdirection/motion/shift part of the offense. They did do it some on Wednesday, but Tulsa hardly reacted to it at all. I don’t know it just seems different. I suppose I should expect that from such a young team, but last year begs to differ.
Hopefully we see some more explosive plays in the coming weeks.
As far as Titus on that pass. I tought it was completely catchable. Titus looked as if he let up at the end. He was inches away from it. A diving grab would have made my day.
Boise State - The best in all the land (The "land" being Idaho, and large parts of California, Oregon, and Nevada.)
What do you think?
I’ve been watching the Oregon Ducks and all I hear is how much they’ve improved since they played the Broncos. Isn’t it possible that Tulsa has improved since Oklahoma beat them up at Oklahoma? Tulsa has had some wins since then which always helps.
Lou
Lou did give us some props. He noted that the Broncos substituted the entire D-line “and didnt; skip a beat” or words to that effect.
here is boise state's problem this week
tonights game cincinatti vs south florida. cincy is slighly behind boise in standings
this weekend. this saturday: usc plays notre dame. iowa plays wisconsin. texas plays okie. i would expect one of these if not two of theses teams to put a beatdown on their higher ranked opponent. i’ll say iowa loses and cincy wins tonight that would mean when bcs standings come out on sunday cincy passes boise. if usc puts a beatdown on notre dame which i think they will considering there dedicating the rest of the year to ther rb who had that unfortunate accident. usc pulls ahead in bcs standings. it works the other way too. if cincy and iowa lose tcu will rise over those two b/c i already saw the weather in fort worth and it’s suppose to be nice weather. expect a serious beatdown on csu this weekend. texas will probably win but if they don’t it will be interesting to see where they place them. if usc loses that helps both boise and tcu. a 2 loss usc team could never play for the nc game and they would fall at least 8 or 9 spots. that is alot of scenarios but that is my take. also the first bcs standing won’t be as interesting as the next weeks when tcu beats a 15th or 16th ranked byu team. i would expect after that game tcu would be right behind boise with a game still left with a utah team which will win at least nine games. ramble on!
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 11:23 AM PDT reply actions
you are wrong again
current bcs standings if they were released today:
MOCK BCS STANDINGS
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Virginia Tech
4. Texas
5. Boise State
6. USC
7. LSU
8. Ohio State
9. Cincinnati
10. Iowa
there is no way tcu is going to jump all the way above boise, and boise is not going to fall below 7th. see you later mountain west fan.
you oviously can't read. bcs standings are not released today. duh
they are released sunday october 18th. tcu beats byu october 24th. next bsc poll october 25th. key word in your comment. “mock” bcs standings.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 1:08 PM PDT up reply actions
there should be a letter b after the o in obviously. we know how many nit-pickers there are
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 1:10 PM PDT up reply actions
Phew. You fixed it.
We are VERY particular with O’s and B’s in order on this site.
"You know where i'm from, a little suspicion about one's true identity and motives is considered good manners."
-- Nale
that was funny. i appreciate that. i actually like the wac.
as you can see i’m for the competitive underdogs. i’ve wished bsu nothing but the best. definitely want them to get bcs bowl bid too. i was sad to see houston lose to utep. they have three bcs wins already: okie state, texas tech and miss. state. then again, they would be ahead of tcu and boise if they were 6-0. 3 bcs wins is better than tcu’s 2 bcs wins and better than boise state’s win vs oregon. peace.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 2:12 PM PDT up reply actions
oviously.
Boise State - The best in all the land (The "land" being Idaho, and large parts of California, Oregon, and Nevada.)
What I loved more about this quote:
“They don’t have the most athletic guys, but they’re a good team and they played hard.”
It was nice to see all these Tulsa defenders out of breathe and dying for more air. As far as I could tell, most of those Tulsa temporary injures were from on-the-field fatigue.
Not the most athletic, huh?
"You know where i'm from, a little suspicion about one's true identity and motives is considered good manners."
-- Nale
my prediction for "real" bcs standings on sunday october 25
1. florida
2.alabama
3.usc
4.texas
5.va.tech if they beat georgia tech which i think they will
6.cincy or iowa. one will lose
7.boise state
8.tcu
9. ohio state
10.? who knows
tcu is my third favorite team in the mwc. utah had there chance vs oregon. they blew it. byu had their chance vs fsu. they blew it big time. i’m only thinking what is best for mwc conference. i still think tcu and boise state will both get bcs bowl bids but a few things have to fall into place with the pac-ten and big ten. tcu rising over boise is an after thought once they go undefeated. boise does not even have a team in the top 50 left. just the facts. peace.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 1:22 PM PDT up reply actions
Top 50... NOW.
I know, it’s a long shot, but you can’t say a team we play isn’t in the top 50… until the end of the season.
"You know where i'm from, a little suspicion about one's true identity and motives is considered good manners."
-- Nale
your only hope is idaho which is around 40th in one poll
i don’t think they can beat nevada or fresno. nevada has finally found there offense and at best a 9-3 idaho team (more like 8-4)would probably be around 55th – 60th ranked.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 15, 2009 2:16 PM PDT up reply actions
again your wrong
idaho is already receiving top 25 votes, if they beat hawaii they will most likely be ranked in top 25 on sunday.
Idaho received one vote on one guy's ballot...
That puts them at about 40th…like wolfman said. If they are indeed 9-3 or 8-4 when we play them they will indeed be in the 50s most likely.
A win over Hawaii may get them more votes in the poll but they will not be ranked. There are at least 8 other teams in the “receiving votes” category that are well ahead of Idaho.
by Drew Roberts on Oct 15, 2009 9:43 PM PDT up reply actions
could not have said it better myself.
btw, i like boise state university and the wac. i just like the mwc a little better. that is why i’m pulling for tcu. if tcu stumbles, i will put my full support behind boise state. peace.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Oct 16, 2009 11:01 AM PDT up reply actions
Tell the confererence presiden'ts to add us.
Then you won’t have to choose!
"You know where i'm from, a little suspicion about one's true identity and motives is considered good manners."
-- Nale
Where is the Pick em this week
That is what I have noticed post BSU game!
We do not take counsel of our fears, our naysayers, or the unknown
Coach Pete January 1, 2007
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