Presented by PINNACLE WINDOWS & DOORS.
This Day In Sports…September 10, 2016, 10 years ago today:
Boise State nabs its first win ever over Washington State, holding off the Cougars 31-28 in an ESPN2 game on the blue turf. The Broncos burst out to a 14-0 lead, with the first touchdown coming on an electrifying 85-yard interception return by Tyler Horton. WSU quarterback Luke Falk had already attempted nine passes on the opening drive when Horton jumped a route and sprinted to the house, and Albertsons Stadium erupted. From there, Boise State bent but didn’t break under the pressure of Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense, which twice rallied from 17-point deficits.
Boise State’s Brett Rypien was playing against the team he grew up rooting for (and his uncle Mark’s alma mater) for the first time. Falk was just being himself, throwing on almost every down. Each QB recorded 16 incompletions in the game, but that’s where the similarity ended. Rypien’s 16 misfires came on only 35 attempts, while Falk put it up a whopping 71 times. Rypien wasn’t consistently sharp, connecting on just 54 percent of his throws. And he tossed three interceptions, with two of them leading to Washington State touchdowns.
Rypien threw for 299 yards, while Falk amassed 480. Rypien did, however, get mileage on his throws—8.5 yards per attempt and 15.7 yards per completion. He had three connections that went for 35 or more yards, including a highlight-reel 40-yard catch by Cedrick Wilson and a crucial 47-yard touchdown to Thomas Sperbeck in the third quarter.
The Boise State defense had its back against the wall in the fourth quarter after interceptions on back-to-back possessions. The Broncos had put all their stock into pass coverage, sacrificing pressure up front, and they mostly eliminated Wazzu big plays. But Falk’s nickling-and-diming allowed the Cougars to keep coming back. Boise State ultimately won the chess match—Raymond Ford’s Hail Mary bat-down at the end may have been the most celebrated pass deflection in Broncos history.
The history against Washington State had not been good. The first meeting resulted in a 58-0 loss to the Rose Bowl-bound Cougars in Pullman in 1997, the worst loss in Boise State history—and the last time the Broncos have been shut out. The third matchup in 2000 was controlled by Boise State but ended as a 42-35 defeat at Martin Stadium. Since the 2016 breakthrough, there’s been the 47-44 triple-overtime loss in 2017 that saw the Broncos blow a 31-10 fourth-quarter lead, and the 45-24 Boise State romp two years ago with Ashton Jeanty running wild on The Blue. Now, for the first time, it’s a conference game next month on the Palouse.
(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.)
