Sin City here we come. The Bronco's invade the city of gaming on Saturday night as Kellen Moore attempts to become the quarterback with the most wins in Division 1 History. Join me after the jump as I point out the keys to this game, breakdown card counting, and how to spend your money if you find yourself up 20 G's.
Boise State is coming off a buy week in which they tried to get healthy, get some lifting in, and prepare for UNLV as if they can pull off the upset against the Broncos. This should be a victory for the Broncos but I do not want to put the proverbial cart before the .... well.... Bronco.
Boise State Offensive Keys to the Game:
No turnovers in the first half. We cannot be fumbling away opportunities or throwing interceptions, especially in opponents territory, and especially against this team. We must take care of the ball. With big games on the horizon we must get back into the routine of being mad and smashing the opponents in our ground game and executing our offensive schemes.
Run the ball for 200 yards plus. This amounts to 125 of Doug, 85 of D.J. Harper and then about 65 of Drew Wright in mop up duty. I don't want our mop up duty to be Joe Southwick being sacked for a loss because he can't see an open receiver in this less than dominant UNLV defense. Nor do I want to see a simple zone play each down in order to run out the clock. We can work some short yardage passing game and mix some different formations while not running up the score. Lets face it, if a team thinks we are trying to run up the score and Kellen Moore and Doug Martin are wearing ball caps then they have some problems.
Not utilize a trick play. Yep, I would keep a section of Boise States playbook shut during this game. Hell, we could only use two formations to beat this team. We need to get back to basics after the layoff and no better way than to establish the run, play action, and use some 15-25 yard passing game.
350 yards through the air. In order to give legitimacy for Boise State to potentially get invited to the Big East, we need to impress. That means, winning and winning in style. No sloppy play, no players suspended for smoking "spice" , breaking numerous traffic laws, trading tattoos for pot, crack, or whatever is hot at the time, or anything else deemed kosher by the SEC/NCAA. I will get back to this Big East thing in moment.
Boise State Defensive Keys
Force three turnovers. Hidden statistic revolves around forced turnovers. If we are forcing turnovers, getting a short field, or better yet, scoring on those turnovers then we really help our cause to win and deflate our opponents.
Keep UNLV to 13 points or fewer. Lets be realistic, they shouldn't get any points on our defense, reserves or starters.....
Sacks, sacks, sacks. I want three sacks from our defense.
UNLV Offensive keys
If, and IF UNLV can throw the ball for 300 yards they may beat us. Don't let that number get you scared because they only average 129 yards a game through the air. This will be a tall feat considering there has been some serious consistency issues at quarterback this year for the Rebels.
Find a way to score 21 points in the first half. Yeah, that would make things interesting.
No turnovers. I know, I say this every week, but when a team doesn't turn the ball over against us, they stand a good chance to beat us.
UNLV defensive keys
Keep Kellen from completing passes beyond 15 yards. Make us nickel and dime them to death.
They must limit us to 24 first half points. They must keep our offense off the field much of the same way Air Force did. All credit to Air Force with running the ball down our throat to chew up clock and keep the Sandwich man on the bench. I don't think UNLV has the goods to run the ball, but I have seen offenses pass the ball to chew up clock, hell, we had to pass the ball to chew up clock Kellen's freshman year.
Pray the lights go out.
This should be a blow out, plain and simple. For those of you looking for cheap thrills after the game check out the Sahara for $1 blackjack. I heard the Hamster and some Stormtroopers may be there, but no promises. For those of you looking for a John Denver look alike feel free to hit up the Long Horn on Boulder Station Highway out towards Henderson. There is lots to do in that splendid town.
Now on to more pressing issues. As many of you may have heard today, the Idaho State Bord of Education voted to give authority to Dr. Bob Kustra to make a decision in regards to a potential invite to the Big East. Praise be on high for that. I don't know if we can get away from the tyranny of Hair Thompson soon enough. Who needs WVU? Let em go. What are they, 24th right now? Can't put together a consistent season, and it clearly doesn't matter who is coaching, be it Rich Rodriguez, Bill Stewart, or Dana Holgerson, none of them could keep their team from suffering at least one major meltdown each season. Right now Boise is a top 5 team, Houston is 13th, and the nearest Big East team is WVU at 24th. Pitt hasn't been relevant since 04, and many people don't realize that Syracuse has a football team. If these 6 invites come to BSU, AF, Houston, SMU, Central Florida, and Navy that would add stability to the Big East and would also be as a whole, much stronger than the current lineup of teams.
What we need now, is for Houston to win out, and we need Case Keenum to throw five to six touchdowns a game and be invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony along with Kellen Moore. We need SMU to pull its head out of its but and not lose in a bad way. Both Houston and SMU want to be where Boise is, they are non AQ teams that feature fun offensive styles and can be the next party crashers. Let us all pray to God, Allah, Buddah or whatever and hope that this invite comes as advertised in the next week or so. I hope we can get away from Hair Thompson and his Mountain USA joke of a conference.
My prediction, 52-13 Blue.