I expect the tight ends to play a major role. I think they should be able to slip behind those aggressive defensive ends and make short yardage catches. Especially if the wide receivers can clear out the cb’s and the linebackers have to respect the play action. We’ll take our shots again deep but I think they will be much more patient with those passes.
 On defense, Venable has to make his tackles. He was in Utah’s backfield all night. Just couldn’t quite bring them down before they got over the line of scrimmage.

Boise State’s offense can put up points, no doubt about it. They will for sure against Nevada’s bad secondary.

The real questions are how much can Boise State’s defense contain Nevada’s run game? Can the Broncos keep the Wolf Pack out of the end zone?

Idaho ripped a gash into our run defense showing mortality. Who’s to say the number one rush offense in the country and arguably history won’t do the same? At least the Broncos kept Idaho out of the end zone for the most part. Can Boise State do the same against Nevada? Nevada is riding high on confidence after ripping off eight straight wins. Plus, Boise State has given up an average of 27 points per game in the last three games. In the first eight, BSU was only allowing 13.6.
Will this be another shootout game like two years ago?

Surprisingly Kaeperlegs doesn’t make me very nervous. Last week Diondre Borel did nothing more than keep the defense honest with his legs. It may surprise you to know he only rushed for 23 yards. At least Borel could throw. I’m thinking half of OBNUG is more accurate than Kaepernick. Boise State proved last year they can stop Kaepertoothpicks on the ground. If our LBs play assignment football and the D line can push up front, all will be good in Bronco Stadium on Friday night.

I can’t remember another season being under the microscope this much so forgive me for sounding slightly…paranoid. I may have more questions than answers. I’m confident our guys can counter anything Nevada throws at them.

Home field advantage capped off with senior day can’t hurt our cause.
 50% of our senior class will go pro this year!

If I was gameplanning for the Nevada rushing attack is I would put 8 guys in the box, have one guy spy on Kaepernick (Iloka like last year) and have the corners play man coverage and make them beat you throwing the ball. I think our secondary is too good and Kaepernick is too bad for them to have any success throwing. We shall see what Wilcox does.

Another thing is…who’s to say that BSU couldn’t have had 500 yards rushing against Utah ST? Doug averaged 9.3 and Avery averaged 7.3…but BSU is a more balanced offense with Kellen pulling the trigger. I think Nevada’s rushing stats are so blown up because they rely so heavily on the run, which I think will get them in to trouble against good defenses like Boise State’s.

is Nevada’s depth at running back. There is literally no drop off in potential/production between Luke Lippincott & Vai Taua. If the Nevada running game gets on a roll, the Broncos could have a tough time stopping them. A tired defense is no match for fresh running backs. We need suffocating defense (and/or a couple turnovers) from the beginning to take Nevada’s “momentum” they’ve carried through the WAC season. If Nevada’s offense stalls on a couple drives, they turn the ball over, or they’re forced to punt I could see the wheels coming off the Wolf Pack wagon… (This would be similar to the Oregon game. I think a lot of our success on defense was a result of the first couple series. We never let the Oregon offense get started which caused problems for them throughout the game.)

I can’t recall exactly what happened, but if I do recall correctly, those Pick 6’s last year were tipped by the defensive linemen. As much as Boise throws to the edges, those passing lanes need to be open to not create the same result last year. I’d be interested to know if Moch and/or Basped were the ones tipping the ball for INT’s in last years game. I do know one was to the left and one was to the right of the field.

What teams did they roll up all those yards and points on? I know, it is a rhetorical question, but I am making a point.

The point? They haven’t played Boise State.

We will spy Kapi and stack the box and force them to pass. We have plenty of talent on the D-line and backers to do this where other WAC teams didn’t. Then the Broncos will pick off Kapi at their leisure. There will be a lot of Nevada turnovers in this game. I am predicting 5. Thinking about the Nevada passing game makes me and Kyle Wilson giddy inside.

The Utah State game showed the importance of not over pursuing plays and sticking to your assignments better, like what they did with the other 3 headed monster, Oregon. I see something similiar happening, but not quite as good with Nevada as it was with Oregon.

If Nevada can’t get a pass rush up the middle, it will be a long day for their secondary. I think we will do just fine against their defensive ends. They will block them deep past Kellen while he steps up in the pocket to conduct surgery on the Wolfpack DBs.

I think we will have a big game on the ground as well. It will happen later in the game after they have been repeatly torched by the pass.

We will come out passing for sure. Always stress the weakest links until they break. There will be a lot of pressure on their passing defense.

It won’t be pretty…for Nevada.

is my first concern. I’m no expert, but it Containing Kaepernick(sounds like one of those insufferable plays Boise Contemp Theatre occassionally does) would intuitively seem the right approach. Everything forced inside, allowing the redoubtable firm of Johnson, Venable & Iloka(sounds like a Hawaiin law firm) to deliver their “packages”. Last week’s game seemed to show some intial difficulty. I think with the Broncosit is significant to note the role that training appears to play. Opposing teams execution diminishes as they simply wear down. that combined with our potent offense appears to take them out of their plan. If we seriously believe we have a BCS worrthy team(I do) we should reamin wary but very optimistic a la Blexes points.

but I hope Burroughs has a better game. The holding call was bad but unnecessary IMO-titus had it all the way. I think he dropped a pass.

I mean no direspect either. I believe the coaches are just getting them some OJT. If it comes down to a injury, (God forbid) we have other weapons in our arsenal. These young guys are our future. They need to get in the game.

If I was Ault, I would take a page out of Utah State’s defensive playbook and come at the Broncos with the “funky” defense – one that seemed to throw Moore off his game.

"They came with some funky stuff that we hadn’t seen on film," Moore said.

I realized it didn’t ultimately pan out because the ground game worked so well, but the Wolfpack have a better run defense, and if they can get Moore misfiring, then all the better.

Before last Friday’s game at Utah State, I was listening to the KBOI pre-game show with Jeff Caves and Paul J. I believe it was Paul J. who mentioned that when Anderson was hired as head coach at Utah State one of his first orders of business was to get the entire team stronger. He was shocked at how weak the Aggies were across the board. This August 2009 article from the SL Tribune states:

Off the field, the program has made significant strides. Six players, before Andersen took the job, could lift 300 pounds in the weightroom, a miniscule number for a division I program. Now, 32 players can make that weight. “Everyone’s gotten stronger and everyone’s gotten a lot bigger,” Borel said. “If you look at before and after pictures from January until now, everyone’s bigger. We just have to keep that strength up throughout the season and continue to work hard.”

While the Aggies still need to improve on their D-Line pass rush, they were able to get a few shots on Moore. I’m sure they would attribute some of their succes to improved work in the weight room. Clearly Nevada does not have this problem with Basped and Moch. Both are beasts, incredibly strong, and Basped has amazing speed for a line player.

While watching the Nevada-ND game early this season, it seemed like the Pack were getting burned on runs to the corner as the DE would consistently get sucked in. I’m sure we’ll see Avery try and take advantage of the agressive play by Moch and Basped.

If this is a year that Nevada doesn’t get down on itself and believes, they have the skills to make this a very competitive game. Yet in their previous statement games, they have laid eggs against ND, Mizzou, and Colo St. Which team will show up? Who knows, but I hope this is a game that the Broncos go for the early knockout punch.

Y’all will kill these guys as well.

impressive. I don’t stray out west too often to get analysis, but damn guys, you’ve outdone yourselves. This is one of the best kept, most active blogs I have seen on SBNation. I’ll have to come back here more often for WAC analysis.