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The tale of two halves. The first quarter was a nightmare for the Broncos. The offense could not move the ball and the defense was allowing Colorado State to move the ball with relative ease. The light turned on late in the second quarter. The offense became more creative and the defense started to clamp down. The Broncos played their best second half of the year, out scoring the Rams 21-3 en route to a 28-19 victory.
Offensive Grade: B
The Broncos were able to overcome a slow start before finding their groove on offense. Boise State managed only nine yards on their first two drives. A drive late in the second quarter changed the game. The Broncos managed to score a touchdown on a 97 yard drive. From that point forward, the offense looked completely different. At one point, Colorado State had 150 more yards than Boise State; the Broncos finished the game winning the yardage battle. The Broncos had their most well balanced game of the year, managing 253 yards through the air and 177 yards on the ground. Hopefully the Broncos can build on this.
Defensive Grade: B
The defense made it really hard on the offense early in the game. They couldn’t get off the field and they loss starting safety JL Skinner to a targeting call. Despite being extremely short handed on defense, the team was able to figure things out after falling behind 13-0 in the first quarter. As rough as things were for the Broncos, holding the Rams to four field goals inside the red zone proved to be the difference. The defense only allowed Colorado State to enter Ram territory once in the second half and held them to a field goal.
Special Teams Grade: B
Like the defense, the special teams overcame a slow start with some rough punts. But two plays early in the second half changed the game. Joel Velazquez was able to back Colorado State up after a punt to the two yard line and a great punt return by Khalil Shakir resulted in Boise State’s first touchdown of the second half.
A huge win by the Broncos keep their bowl hopes alive. What are your thoughts from Saturday evening’s showdown?