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This Day In Sports…October 27, 2018:
Boise State finally breaks through at the Air Force Academy, taking a wild 48-38 victory after losing to the Falcons there in 2014 and 2016. Brett Rypien righted the ship with 399 yards passing and five touchdowns. Three of them went to John Hightower, who had eight catches for 182 yards. The Broncos defense, gashed for 278 yards in the first half, held Air Force to 165 after the break to key the win. Rypien recorded his 20th career game of 300 or more yards, tying the Mountain West record held by BYU’s Max Hall.
Make no mistake, Broncos offensive coordinator Zak Hill (now Boise State’s quarterbacks coach) called a great game. The most obvious gold strikes were a 35-yard touchdown from Rypien to CT Thomas on fourth-and-10 at the end of the first half and a 61-yard bomb from Rypien to John Hightower late in the fourth quarter for the final TD of the game. A gutsy night for Hill. But this call should not be overlooked: an inside screen to Hightower that sniffed out an Air Force blitz and resulted in an 18-yard first-quarter score.
It was redemption night for Rypien, who had gone 9-for-26 in Colorado Springs in 2016. He was 20-of-34—just 59 percent—but that was mainly due to a 4-of-13 stretch late in the first half. That ended with an exclamation point on the TD throw to Thomas. Rypien threw five touchdown passes for the second time in his career and was one yard short of 400 for the night. Darn the luck. (He was one yard short of 300 in a win at Nevada two weeks prior.) Rypien upped his career total in TD passes to 83, topping Ryan Dinwiddie by one for second place in the Boise State record book.
Hightower did not have a reception for the first time that season the previous week against Colorado State. But there would be no trend coming out of that at Air Force. Hightower’s catches, yards and touchdowns were all career-highs. And, after being flagged at Nevada for his TD celebration following an 88-yard run, he sprinted back to the bench on each score against the Falcons.
Meanwhile, on the first Air Force drive of the night, every Boise State defensive fear about that notorious Falcons offense was realized. The dreaded dive play, the quarterback clicking on the triple-option, and the sucker pass over the top for the long-gainer. The Falcons were in the end zone in six plays.
In the second quarter they went all Broncos on the Broncos, scoring on a 32-yard wide receiver pass. Air Force gained 9.3 yards per play in the first half. But Boise State circled the wagons at halftime, made their adjustments and forced punts on the Falcons’ first two drives of the third quarter. The Broncos held Air Force to 4.5 yards per play in the second half. All things considered, that was pretty good.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
