Presented by TURN RIGHT SERVICES.
This Day In Sports…October 22, 2011, 15 years ago today:
Donning gray jerseys to abide by its new conference’s ban on all-blue uniforms on the blue turf in league games, Boise State beats Air Force 37-26 in its first home appearance in a Mountain West matchup. The week leading up to the game, coach Chris Petersen had urged fans to treat the service academy opponent well, and the sellout crowd gave the Falcons a respectful welcome for the first-ever meeting between the two teams. And the Air Force triple option was more than respectable, staying with the Broncos thanks to 264 rushing yards.
It was an atypical experience for a Boise State team of that era. A lesson from a prideful team that took offense at being a 29-point underdog against a newcomer to its conference. The joy of actually having the stands almost full with one minute left in the game. The sight of Kellen Moore playing the final minutes of the fourth quarter with the need for a score. The clash with Air Force was Boise State’s Mountain West moment, as in, “We’re not in the WAC anymore, Toto.”
But the Boise State offense was classically efficient on only 55 plays, with Moore throwing for 281 yards and three touchdowns as he tied Colt McCoy for all-time wins by a college quarterback with 45. Moore and the Broncos had only eight possessions the entire game. Air Force, on the other hand, piled up 82 plays on the day. With that many snaps, tackle numbers for Boise State defenders were bound to balloon—linebacker Byron Hout made 18 stops and safety George Iloka 12.
In the previous four games, no Broncos opponent had managed to run off as many as 60 plays. And here was Air Force rolling off 82? As bad as it looked at times for the Boise State defense, the Broncos still gave up a manageable five yards per play. There had only been three games in which the Broncos had allowed fewer yards per play so far that season. The frustration came on third down, where the Falcons converted nine times. It was maddening to see Air Force turn third-and-longs into first downs on running plays like it did on a third-and-21 a minute into the fourth quarter.
If you look at the same numbers pertaining to the Boise State offense, you get an appreciation for what the Broncos were able to do. They just never had the ball. The Broncos averaged 7.7 yards per snap, their second-highest number of the season. The offense had a sense of urgency with its limited opportunities, and it made the most of them. Other than San Diego State, no team gave the Broncos more trouble than Air Force in their 15 years in the Mountain West—the Falcons won four times in 13 tries.
(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.)
