On Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego State discovered firsthand that Boise State was for real.
And SDSU found out the hard way.
Kellen Moore threw for 366 yards and four touchdowns, and running back Doug Martin rushed for 129 yards and two scores as BSU throttled the Aztecs 52-35.
After losing last week to TCU, all but dashing their dreams for a national championship, BSU’s Broncos (9-1, 4-1) came out firing on all cylinders early.
“I really thought we would start fast,” Broncos head coach Chris Petersen said. “I knew we’d play hard early on. I think there were people that were concerned that we’d have a hangover effect from the last game.”
On the first drive of the game, senior quarterback Ryan Lindley threw an interception right to Boise State defensive lineman Shea McClellin at the SDSU 25-yard line. With a short field to work with, BSU quarterback Moore found Tyler Shoemaker for a 5-yard touchdown pass – the first of three passing strikes to Shoemaker.
Later in the first quarter, disaster struck for the Aztecs’ special teams unit. Leon McFadden fumbled a punt and Brandon Davis coughed it up on a kickoff return just minutes later, and Boise State scored touchdowns on both turnovers to go up 21-0 in the first quarter.
“Obviously, that cost us the game,” SDSU head coach Rocky Long said. “Boise State is a great football team. So you don’t know how it’s going to come out, but when their first three drives are from inside the 25-yard line, sure that costs you the game. We didn’t even give ourselves a chance to compete, to make it a game.”
Led by Moore, the Broncos jumped to a 42-14 lead by halftime, and with such a big deficit to the No. 10-ranked team in the country, the Aztecs’ chances for an upset victory were all but dashed before the third quarter even rolled around.
“We have to figure it out,” Lindley said. “We need to look at some tape and do some soul searching on why we aren’t starting as fast as we want to. We will figure it out and move on from there.”
With stud sophomore running back Ronnie Hillman nursing a high ankle sprain and only mustering three carries for 8 yards, redshirt freshman Adam Muema came in and gave SDSU fans a glimpse at their future tailback. Muema rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns on only 13 carries, highlighted by a 81-yard scoring run in the first quarter.
“He did awesome,” Lindley said. “He came in and when you have a good team, when you are building a great team like this you have to have guys to step up … Adam did a great job and he really stepped up tonight.”
SDSU scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to pull within 17 and make the final score 52-35.
“The only thing that I saw positive about tonight was that our team showed ability to hang in there when things were going as bad as they can possibly go,” Long said. “That’s a positive sign with two weeks left in the season. I wish it would have happened five weeks ago, but it’s a positive sign.”
