Broncos buck Ags
Turnovers and penalties were the theme of Utah State’s 49-14 loss to Boise State.
The Aggies committed three fumbles and threw three interceptions to go along with 13 penalties for 122 yards.
“We had way way too many penalties, too many turnovers,” USU head coach Brent Guy said. “That’s the worst game we’ve had as far as number of penalty yards that I can remember.”
It took Boise State three minutes and seven plays to get on the scoreboard with a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kellen Moore to Austin Pettis. When the Aggies got their chance on offense they couldn’t keep their two game record of scoring on the opening drive going. The Aggies turned the ball over on downs after a run by Marquis Butler was stopped for no gain on 4th down.
With 14 minutes left in the second quarter, Diondre Borel fumbled on the USU four-yard line, Ellis Powers recovered the fumble for the Broncos and returned it for a touchdown, making the score 14-0.
After the Broncos opening drive the Aggie defense held the Broncos offense scoreless until midway through the second quarter. After three tries from the 1-yard line, Ian Johnson ran in for a touchdown to make it 21-0 for Boise State.
With eight-minutes remaining in the first half Sean Setzer replaced Diondre Borel at quarterback.
“Diondre just wasn’t playing very well, he wasn’t seeing some things, threw two balls in the dirt,” Guy said. “We just needed to put Sean in there.”
For the game Setzer had 226 yards, on 19-33 passing with two interceptions and two touchdowns.
“Sean went in and did a good job, I thought, throwing the football, even running it a couple times,” said Guy. “That’s the nice thing about having Sean there as a senior, you can throw him in. He hadn’t had a lot of game experience the last couple weeks and I felt like in this atmosphere against this kind of team he did pretty well.”
With less than two minutes to play in the first half, Aggie strong safety James Brindley intercepted Bronco quarterback Kellen Moore. The Aggies scored on the next play with a 51-yard pass from Setzer to sophomore tight end Doug Barbour.
“All week in practice I had been running that rout and running it well, and it was just a good week of practice,” said Barbour. “I made that touchdown in practice and I made it in the game.”
The Aggies started the second half right were they left off, with 49-yard kickoff return by Kejon Murphy. It only took four plays for Setzer to connect with Robert Turbin for a 29-yard touchdown pass, bringing the Aggies within two scores of the Broncos.
“We actually ran the play earlier and was open but there was pressure, and we just tried to set them up again,” Setzer said. “Coach called that play at a good time, and Turbin made a great catch.”
From that point on Boise scored 21 unanswered points. The Broncos used a number of trick plays throughout the game, keeping the Aggies on their toes.
“Some of their trickery got us today,” Brindley said.
Four different Bronco players threw touchdown passes.
“There was about 21 points that were reverse passes, or outlets or big plays that we allowed to happen, and that’s what they do,” Guy said. “Boise State is good at those things, they believe they can make them work, and they did today. They got 21 points out of them today.”
The Aggies stay on the road this week as they take on Louisiana Tech Saturday at 12:30 p.m.