Hatemay's Game Thoughts- Skeletor Edition

They huffed and puffed and did not blow our house down, but they did blow.  Boise State beats the visiting Nevada Wolf Pack 30-10 with the defense leading the way for the Broncos.

Quarterback-  Statistically, this was Kellen Moore's worst game- and we won the game by 20 points, so I am not complaining too much.  Moore was 19-33 for 142 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.  Not what we have been accustomed to, but we won.  The offense in general came out very nervous. They played thinking that every little mistake would cost them the game, and a game cannot be played like that.  Luckily we got out of that  nervous rut in the 2nd quarter. Moore missed his receivers, was plagued by some drops and is dealing with a revolving door of bodies at offensive line, not to mention, the ghosts of last years second half meltdown.  Moore, along with the rest of the offense was trying too hard to get the proverbial monkey off their backs.  

 

Running backs- Doug Martin broke out today.  That was nice to see.  He fought hard for yards, and the offensive line did open some holes that gave Martin and Harper room to run through.  D.J. Harper's touchdown catch required great concentration.  It was good to see our running backs some room to run. 

 

Wide Receivers-  it wasn't our best performance.  Too many drops. Too many drops. 

 

Offensive line-  Yes, this is probably our biggest concern save Kellen's knee brace and our kicking game, but the big boys fared pretty well today.  Shout out to Cory Yriarte for stepping up as our third string center.  We are paper thin right now at offensive line, and he stepped up.  Jake Broyles, Spencer Gerke, and Thomas Byrd all in street clothes.... Nugies, that is not a good sight.  We are one more o-line injury from being in really bad shape. 

 

Defensive line-  The D-line got pressure on the quarterback, repeatedly tackled Mike Ball for minimal gains and made solid tackles all day.  That sums it up.  Good work big men.

 

Linebackers-  Did anyone notice that Byron Hout cloned himself before the game?  Oh wait, he didn't?  Byron Hout had a great game, and the linebackers filled the holes well this time around against the Wolf Pack.  Credit J.C. Percy with a good pick. 

 

Secondary-  With the exception of one play with less than a minute to go our secondary had a good game.  Qualon Ewing-Burton played well.  He stepped up.  

 

Special Teams-  We finally get consistent with touch backs.... I'm not complaining.  We continue to pin the opposing teams deep in their own territory.  Brad Elkin and the punt team are doing great.

 

All in all, we tackled much better this week.  Our offense played way too nervous in the first quarter.  Kellen had a bad game, everyone knows it.  The good thing this week is, we have work to do.  No complacency.  Our offense can do much better, our secondary needs more communication.  Lets be realistic, this Wolf Pack team is no where near the team they were last year.  We can't get too excited about this victory.  Yeah, we beat them bad on our home turf, our defense didn't let them across mid field for most of the game, and our offense moved the ball at will at times, but we have much to work on.  Look for us to make a statement against Patricia Hill in the Valley next week.

 

Food for thought.  Our strength of schedule continues to take hits week in and week out.  It is safe to say playing for a National Championship is out of the question.  I think there would be too many undefeated teams by the end of the season.  I see LSU running the table. The winner of OK-OKst goes undefeated, and Oregon will win out.  We will most likely get the Fiesta against a 2nd seed Big 12 team.  Probably OKSt.  Lets continue to support the team and keep a "one game at a time" mentality.