EAST HARTFORD – Think of UConn’s 38-21 loss to Boise State Saturday in terms of a book that was missing the beginning and final chapters. In between was a good story, with a solid plot, and the possibility of a happy ending. But without the start, and without the finish, the story was incomplete.
The Broncos had a scoop and score fumble recovery to begin the scoring in the first quarter. And, after UConn battled back to pull within three points late in the third quarter, Boise State intercepted quarterback Chandler Whitmer twice – once to set up a touchdown and the other for a 50-yard touchdown after the defender literally ripped the ball from Geremy Davis’ hands.
Right there, Boise State (2-1) had 21 points without much effort from the offensive unit. And the Huskies could only deal with their big-play miscues by hoping to correct those mistakes – and eliminate them completely – in the future.
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“Fourteen uncontested points where the defense or the special teams are not on the field against any opponent we are going to play, it becomes impossible to win the games – let alone a nationally branded powerhouse,” UConn coach Bob Diaco said. “When you factor in another plus-field turnover, you’re talking about 21 points. That has to get solved. We are working hard to solve it and it’s hard to win football games when you do that. Those are the things that cause losing.” |
Thanks to some fine defense, UConn (1-2) handled some of the biggest threats coming into the game. Boise running back Jay Ajayi, who was averaging 5.76 yards per carry and had 305 yards in his first two games was held to 39 yards on 18 carries. Quarterback Grant Hedrick was 19 of 27 for 233 yards and two touchdowns but the Broncos never enjoyed a prolonged period of gaining yards at any point in the game.
“The defense is moving their game forward,” Diaco said. “I’m proud of how they played today.”
The defense slowed Boise State to 292 yards of total offense, just two more yards than the Huskies, who ran 74 offensive plays to Boise’s 56. UConn dominated possession time and totalled five more first downs than Boise’s 13. The Huskies did not squander red zone opportunities, scoring two touchdowns and one field goal in three tries.
But UConn quarterbacks Chandler Whitmer and Tim Boyle were sacked eight times for a loss of 51 yards. UConn called a last second timeout, offsetting a short toss to Davis that might have busted open for a 74-yard touchdown. And the crowd of 30,098 watched in dismay in the fourth quarter as UConn’s final two mistakes sealed things for the Broncos.
Whitmer’s interception gave Boise the ball at the UConn 37 and resulted in a 9-yard TD pass from Hedrick to Matt Miller with 9:19 left. The Broncos finished off their scoring with the 50-yard interception return when Donte Deayon stripped Davis on a catch and then sprinted 50 yards to the end zone with 4 minutes remaining.
“I’ve got to play defense at that point,” Davis said. “When I see he’s got the ball, I’ve got to knock it out. That’s a bad job on my part.”
Boise State outscored UConn 14-0 in the final quarter.
“It was one of those games that came down to the fourth quarter, which we have all been looking for,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “Is this going to happen? Are we a fourth quarter team? Can we finish out a game? Can we stop an opponent from scoring and moving the ball down the field? We did that tonight and we did it in a big way with some turnovers. We were able to get it done.
“UConn, give those guys credit. They played better than we had seen them play in the first two games. They were a better team than they were from week one to week two to week three.”
Boise State’s 21-10 halftime lead became 24-13 after the teams traded field goals in the third quarter. The Huskies actually managed to make it interesting when Shane Williams-Rhoades fumbled Justin Wain’s 52-yard punt and UConn’s John Hicks recovered at the BSU 30. Three plays later, Whitmer threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Davis in the end zone. Whitmer had passed 17 yards to Deshon Foxx on first down. A two-point conversion, on a pass from Whitmer to freshman Arkeel Newsome, was successful and the Boise State lead was 24-21 1:09 remaining in the third quarter.
“That was a big momentum change,” Davis said.
UConn safety Andrew Adams said, “There was so much energy on the sideline. We were in it to win. We’ve just got to finish stronger, which we will do in the future. I’m proud of the way we came out on defense and attacked. That’s the mindset we have now.”
UConn held Boise State’s powerful offense to six first downs and just 131 yards on 26 plays in the first half. The Huskies won the time of possession battle with 20 minutes, 34 seconds to 9:26 for Boise State. UConn led the way with 146 yards of total offense too but couldn’t get anything going with the running game, losing nine yards.
Whitmer was 11 for 15 for 151 yards in the first half and connected with tight end Alec Bloom in the back end of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown pass that gave the Huskies a 10-7 lead with 9:54 left in the second quarter. But the Broncos dominated the end of the second quarter. Miller beat safety Obi Melifonwu over the middle, got wide open behind the UConn defense and caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Grant Hedrick.
Hedrick was 7-for-12 for 105 yards and one TD in the first half. He also caught a 7-yard TD pass on a trick play that gave Miller the ball on a reverse play with 32 seconds left in the second quarter. Miller’s pass wasn’t the most beautiful aerial in Rentschler Field history, but Hedrick pulled it in to give the Broncos a 21-10 lead at halftime.
“That pass I caught was kind of scary it was so side open,” Hedrick said. “It seemed like the ball was in the air forever. Matt did a great job of getting me the rock on that one and not overthrowing it.”
For the third straight game, UConn opened with a costly fumble. Newsome coughed up the ball to Armand Nance and it was scooped up by Tanner Vallejo at the UConn 31. Vallejo ran it into the end zone for a 7-0 Boise lead with 12:24 left in the first. The Huskies responded with a 60 yard drive on 12 plays but couldn’t reach the end zone. Bobby Puyol kicked a 39-yard field to cut the Boise lead to 7-3.
“We did a lot of good things, but we’ve got to finish,” said Whitmer, who was 16 of 29 for 209 yards with two touchdowns and the two touchdowns.
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