SAN JOSE – The momentum was in San Jose State’s favor a number of occasions Saturday evening to drag off its first upset over a top-15 opponent since 2000.
However the Spartans by no means took benefit towards No.13 Boise State and fell 42-21 to the Broncos at house.
Walker Eget threw two touchdowns on the primary two drives of the sport had a crowd of 20,517, the most important at CEFCU Stadium since 2013, ecstatic.
Boise State (9-1, 6-0 Mountain West) fumbled the following kickoff and gave SJSU (6-4, 3-3) the ball again for a possible 21-0 lead.
The offense stalled out contained in the 5-yard line and SJSU head coach Ken Niumtalolo initially despatched out the sphere purpose unit. He then referred to as a timeout attributable to a substitution error and determined to go for it.
What ensued was a trick play to an offensive lineman for a unfavorable acquire that zapped all of the power from the stadium.
“My gut instinct was to go up three scores. But then we called a timeout and I got greedy, that’s really what happened,” Niumatalolo stated.
The Broncos then had an 11-play, 98-yard drive for a landing to seek out their rhythm. They went on to outscore the Spartans 42-7 after the trick play.
“Those are always tough decisions because when you make them, you’re the hero and when you don’t, you know you’re not. But it’s tough I think we had them drawn up right, there’s just one little mistake. Those are the ones that kill you,” Spartans extensive receiver Nick Nash stated.
The primary half ended tied at 14 and SJSU held Heisman Trophy favourite Ashton Jeanty to 57 yards.
Nash led the primary drive of the second half with 89 yards and a landing on a 98-yard drive to get the gang again into it.
Boise State bought the ball and may have gone three-and-out topped off by a Soane Toia sack because the exclamation level.
However Jordan Pollard, who sat out the primary half attributable to a focusing on penalty in final week’s sport, got here in with a late hit to increase the drive that resulted in a landing.
“That kills us and you can’t win a game playing like that,” cornerback DJ Harvey stated.
San Jose State didn’t rating one other level after the penalty whereas Boise State scored 4 unanswered touchdowns.
The convention chief seemed susceptible at a number of factors. SJSU stopped a faux discipline purpose try, recovered a fumbled kickoff, and had the Broncos miss a discipline purpose.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow because we felt like we had every opportunity to win that game and we had some missed opportunities we didn’t capitalize on,” Niumatalolo stated of the Spartans’ fifteenth consecutive regular-season loss to Boise State.
Turnover issues
Eget completed 34-for-50 for 446 yards, three touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble. The quarterback now has a turnover in 5 straight video games.
“That’s a big thing that I’ve been struggling with and I really need to change that this week because that changes the game itself,” Eget stated. “The score would be a lot different if we didn’t lose the turnover battle.”
Essentially the most damning was the fumble.
SJSU went for it on fourth-and-2 on the Boise State 44-yard line tied at 21. Eget ran previous the first-down marker however defender Ty Benefield knocked the ball free and ended the drive.
“If I could go back, I would just go down after I got the first and not take the unnecessary hit and fumble. That’s just bad ball,” Eget stated.
Eget was solely sacked as soon as regardless of the Broncos coming into the sport with the second-best sack charge (4.44 per sport) within the nation.
Jeanty and quarterback Maddux Madsen didn’t flip the ball over and Boise State received the turnover battle 4-1.
“That was my No. 1 message going into the game, we have to take care of the football. It’s imperative and it cost us,” Niumatalolo stated.
Heisman and Biletnikoff candidates placed on a present
Two of the most important names in school soccer mixed for nearly 300 yards and each broke faculty information.
Jeanty completed with 159 yards and three touchdowns, which helped him break Boise State’s single-season speeding file set in 2014 by Jay Ajayi. Jeanty completed the sport with 1,893 speeding yards on the season.
“The explosive plays you saw in the second half with a great back like that, he’s going to find his own so it’s tough going against a back like that,” Harvey stated.
Nash broke Noel Grigsby’s SJSU single-season reception file (89) set in 2011. He concluded the sport with 95 receptions this season and a stat line of 9 receptions, 126 yards and a landing.
Justin Lockhart led SJSU in receiving with 10 receptions, 172 yards and a landing.
”It’s fairly bittersweet. I believe it could have been cooler to say that we beat the No. 13 staff within the nation however sadly, that’s not the case,” Nash stated of breaking the file.
Each improved their already sharp resumes because the semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award (high operating again) and Fred Biletnikoff Award (high receiver) are introduced this week.
Up subsequent:
San Jose State will play the second sport of its end-of-season homestand towards UNLV at 7 p.m. Friday.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster and we just gotta ride it into the next game,” Eget stated.
The Spartans convention championship hopes are extinguished with three convention losses however they’ll spoil the Rebels’ probabilities.
