BOISE — With Ashton Jeanty and the rest of the Boise State offense grabbing much of the attention, it can be easy to bury the struggles of the Boise State pass game.
The Broncos aren’t ignoring it, however.
Despite big wins the last two weeks against Washington State and Utah State, the Broncos are well aware they have given up numbers in the pass game that are unacceptable to them.
“If you look back at the game from Saturday, I just cut them out, there’s about nine plays where if you take those nine away,” Boise State defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said Monday, two days after the Broncos’ 62-30 win against Utah State. “But you can’t take those back. To get those fixed, there’s no magical answer. There’s some technique issues we got to get fixed, there’s some tackling issues we got to get fixed and then we just can’t have a lack of urgency once we start getting up on an opponent.”
The Broncos (4-1, 1-0 Mountain West) have given up 300-yard passing games in back-to-back weeks. Two weeks ago it was Washington State’s John Mateer who threw for 327 yards in a 45-24 Bronco win. On Saturday it was Spencer Petras throwing for 372 yards and three touchdowns for the Aggies.
Through five games this season, Boise State ranks 123rd in the nation — and last in the Mountain West — in pass defense, allowing 278.8 passing yards per game.
“We’re looking at it from all phases,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “Is it, we’re not getting the signals, is it a lack of technique? A lot of what shows up on film right now is we are not executing our techniques. These are Day 1 techniques, when you come to play Boise State football, we teach you these techniques. There’s been a drop-off and that’s on me as the head coach and it’s on our defensive coaches to get it fixed.”
Boise State will have another game against a prolific passer this week when they travel to face Hawaii on Saturday night.
Brayden Schager, the Warriors’ quarterback, is 27th in the nation with 265.6 passing yards per game. Schager’s top target this season has been Pofele Ashlock, who has 40 catches for 428 yards this season through five games for Hawaii (2-3, 0-1). In each of the past four games, Ashlock has at least eight catches and 70 yards receiving.
“I got a ton of respect for what they do offensively,” said Danielson. “Especially with the weapons they got. No. 5, Ashlock, is a matchup nightmare. The guy can run and from everything I’ve seen, seems like a phenomenal player, one of their leaders. And that quarterback, he can put it everywhere. No. 13 can make the throws, he’s nimble on his speed and he can take off, too.”
BRONCOS LOSE RED ZONE PERFECTION
Boise State is no longer perfect in the red zone, but only due to a technicality.
The Broncos entered the red zone late in Saturday’s win against Utah State with an 11-yard reception to Austin Bolt, putting the Broncos at the Aggies’ 11.
On the next play, they kneeled out the clock, which counted as a knock against the Broncos’ red zone numbers.
“That hurts, we can’t catch Navy if we’re counting kneel downs,” joked Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, referring to one of the seven teams in the country that remain perfect in red zone scoring and the only one that has scored a touchdown in every trip inside the opponent’s 20.
Prior to the kneel down, Boise State had converted its previous 23 red zone attempts, with 20 touchdowns and three field goals.
“We’ve been so fortunate,” said Koetter. “One year when I was in the NFL, the Titans led the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage. A good friend of mine was their receivers coach and I asked, ‘what was the secret to being so good and so productive in the red zone?’ He said, ‘we ran the (expletive) out of the ball and we got lucky in the passing game.’ I guess that’s what we’re doing right now.”
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