Broncos Muzzle Lobos In Albuquerque

FINAL: Boise State 31, New Mexico 14

espn.com

The Broncos headed to New Mexico after a highly unsatisfying opener, looking to right some wrongs and exorcise some demons. They (largely) succeeded.

First Quarter

...not overly exciting. Hank Bachmeier got the start, as anticipated. On defense, Boise State started fast with a sack and a TFL on their first series, but then Rocky Long’s defense lived up to the reputation of a Rocky Long defense. So, neither offense did much in the first quarter.

Second Quarter

The Broncos started to find some rhythm on offense in the second quarter. Bachmeier connected with Cole Wright on a 47 yard pass and then Latrell Caples capped the drive by taking a slant 18 yards into the end zone to get the Broncos on the board.

7-0, Broncos

After trading a couple more possessions, Jonah Dalmas added a 48 yarder to get 3 more on the board for Boise State.

10-0, Broncos

Halftime

Third Quarter

The Boise State offense moved the ball a bit better in the 3rd quarter, but weren’t quite able to punctuate those drives with points. The defense, however, was excellent. At one point in Q3, the Broncos had already accumulated six sacks. And then, after another excellent defensive series, this delightful special teams incident occurred:

Going back to last season, that makes three special teams touchdowns vs the Lobos in just 2 matchups.

17-0, Broncos

Fourth Quarter

The Broncos offense really started to assert themselves in the 4th quarter. The majority of the heavy lifting on their first scoring drive technically took place in the 3rd quarter, but literally two seconds into the 4th frame, George Holani took a short pass into the end zone from 3 yards out.

24-0, Broncos

The Lobos found a slight spark themselves to answer fairly immediately. Kendrick connected with Porter for a 69 yard touchdown (not so “niccce”) on a * checks notes *...one play drive.

24-7, Broncos

Boise State answered back several possessions later on a 31 yard drive, set up by a nice Stef Cobbs punt return. The scoring play came on a little shovel pass to wide receiver, LaTrell Caples, that gave him his second for the day.

31-7, Broncos

Unfortunately, the Lobos refused to go quietly into that goodnight and immediately returned a kickoff 100 yards for a score. So, that was less than ideal. It was also the final score of the game.

31-14, Broncos

Overall, while still not quite breaking out, the offense performed much better than last week. They had a total of 8 explosive plays and the run game even seemed to find a bit of a spark in the latter half of the game. It was actually Jeanty that largely got the yards on the ground, though. He had 72 yards (6.0 ypc) to Holani’s 67 (3.4 ypc).

The defense played lights out. Six sacks (and 12 TFLs) was the final tally, but outside of that one, 69 yard shock play, they shut down the Lobos offense the whole rest of the game.

Hank seemed to somewhat get back on the horse (so to speak). He didn’t crack 200 yards passing and had an interception, but also had 3 TDs and largely operated the offense efficiently.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was a decisive victory and I think we’ll all take a 17 point win over a 17 point loss any day!

We’ll see you all next week for the home opener, but until then...

...Go Broncos!