BOISE — Utah State’s visit to The Blue in Boise went pretty much as predicted. The highest ranked team in the conference, No. 21 Boise State, ran the Aggies off the infamous off-color turf and out of Albertsons Stadium with a 62-30 drubbing. It was the most points given up by the Aggies since 2008 when they allowed No. 18 Oregon to rack up 66 points.
Boise State set the tone immediately in the game, forcing a three-and-out on Utah State’s offense, and then on the first play with the Broncos on offense they went to a familiar face — Ashton Jeanty. The star running back took a handoff on the opening play 63 yards all the way to the house for a touchdown. Boise State never really looked back.
“First play of the game, probably practiced it 30 times,” USU interim head coach Nate Dreiling said. “But that’s the deal. When you’re playing a team of that caliber, it has to go right. And you have to win your one-on-one’s and we just didn’t.”
As much as Jeanty did damage in this game — he added a 75-yard touchdown run later in the half and finished with 186 yards and a trio of TDs before an early exit to the game (for reasons of it was blowout) — most of the extended drives were powered by the Broncos’ pass attack with quarterback Maddux Madsen. He only had four incomplete passes the entire game (going 21 for 25 on the night), slinging the ball for 259 yards and three scores in just over two quarters of work.
Dreiling said the defense had to place so much emphasis on stopping Jeanty (who on Saturday became the sixth running back since 1996 to reach 1,000 rushing yards in just five games) that it opened up things for the Broncos pass game.
“Our game plan was very simple, make sure (Jeanty) doesn’t beat us,” Dreiling said. “If they wanted to throw the ball for 400 yards, then that was a risk we had been willing to take (Jeanty) out of the game. I thought we would have held up a little bit better. We did not on some plays and ultimately that cost. But we just couldn’t do good enough a job versus the run to make them one-dimensional.”
That balance between run and pass killed any chance Utah State had in the game. At one point, right after the start the second quarter, there was some hope the Aggies could compete. A 59-yard connection from Spencer Petras to Jalen Royals brought USU to within four points, 14-10. That touchdown had also come after the Aggies held the Boise offense to a three-and-out on two out of the three previous drives. You could even point out the fact that, after from the one long TD by Jeanty, he’d gained just eight yards on his next four rush attempts (three going for just one yard).
That hope was doomed to be short-lived.
Right after Royals’ TD catch, the Broncos would go on to score on six consecutive drives — with four straight touchdowns to end the half — largely led by Madsen. Jeanty would be the first two respond, as his aforementioned 75-yard TD came in direct response to Royals’ TD. But two of the next three scoring drives ended with a Madsen TD pass.
Royals proved to be one of several bright spots in the offense. His 59-yard score wasn’t his only highlight of the game. The senior wideout caught nine passes for 211 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the second one being 75 yards, his longest reception of the year and USU’s longest play of the year overall. Royals started the year a bit slow, with just 168 yards through three games. But he now has back-to-back games with north of 100 yards after having 112 plus a TD against Temple.
That production from Royals accounted for a decent chunk, but far from all of Petras’ own yardage. The seventh-year quarterback eclipsed the 300-yard mark for the first time in his career, tallying 372. He also set a career high in completions, going 27 of 41 and had a career-high-tying three TD tosses. Two went to Royals with the third going to Otto Tia.
Those long TDs to Royals seemed to make things start to click for Petras, who’s still working his way back into form after not playing a full football game between 2022 and two weeks ago against Temple. His performance hadn’t been up to preseason expectations and the vertical passing game, which has been a staple of the Blake Anderson/Kyle Cefalo offense the last several years, wasn’t in form. Petras said he was on “a different page” from the receivers in terms of that vertical aspect of the offense.
“It was my fault, it’s not theirs at all. And I think that (the 59-yard TD to Royals) was a confidence builder just in like it finally clicked,” Petras said. “So I think we were probably a lot more aggressive after that.”
Rahsul Faison also kept up the good fight. He posted his third straight 100-yard rushing game with 116 yards on 26 carries. Getting that third straight game over the century mark made him the first Aggie to do so since Kerwynn Williams in 2012.
A good deal of credit for the great play from the run and pass game goes to the offensive line. A Boise State defense that had averaged five sacks per game and lit up Washington State for eight QB takedowns last week only sacked Petras once on the very first play of the game (which Petras said was entirely his fault).
“Coach (Cooper) Bassett might be the best O-line coach in the country,” Dreiling said. “They’re working their butts off and it’s showing up on tape.”
All of this solid play from the USU offense would completely go to waste, though, thanks to a defense that couldn’t get Boise off the field except through allowing them into the end zone or into Jonah Dalmas’ kicking range. Utah State has now allowed 38 or more points in every game against an FBS opponent this season, setting aside the fact Saturday was the worst defensive performance in more than a decade in a half.
Utah State now sits at 1-4 on the season, tied with the 2022 and 2020 seasons for the worst start to a campaign in the last 15 years. The Aggies are now 0-1 in Mountain West play and will await UNLV for a Friday-night matchup in USU’s homecoming game next week. The Rebels, ranked No. 25 in this week’s poll, lost in overtime to Syracuse yesterday.
