No. 5 Boise State Favored By 9 Over Tulsa

NFL News - October 15th, 2009 - Written by Scott

Boise State was looking for an impressive win on Thursday night over Tulsa as they hoped to impress pollsters when the new BCS rankings come out this week. They had a national audience all to themselves...the spotlight was on them. The 5th ranked Boise State Broncos were able to escape a pesky Tulsa team on Thursday night winning 28-21. They did get the win, but how much they did to impress the pollsters will soon be determined. Boise State had to bounce back after trailing early in the game and hold off a fourth quarter rally by Tulsa to escape and get the win, a "solid win" according to head coach Chris Peterson.

"It's usually never good enough for a lot of people, usually including us and our team," Petersen said. "Tulsa's a good team, and this was going to be a good test for us. I think we battled hard against some really explosive playmakers. The important thing is that we get a little bit better. Teams don't stay the same, and we won't either. We either need to get better or we're going to get passed by."

Tulsa got an early lead in the first quarter on a 53 yard touchdown pass from A.J. Whitmore to Damarius Johnson out of their version of the wildcat offense. The Broncos would quickly respond on a 8 yard touchdown pass from Kellen Moore to Thomas Gallardo and convert on the 2 point conversion to give Boise a 8-7 lead. Tulsa quarterback G.J. Kline would find Trae Johnson from 15 yards out with 16 seconds remaining in the first quarter to give Tulsa back the lead 14-8.

The second and third quarters would belong to Boise. On the opening drive of the second quarter, Moore would give the Broncos back the lead as he connected with Austin Pettis on a 17 yard touchdown pass to put Boise back ahead 15-14 and with 36 seconds remaining until halftime, Kyle Brotzman would hit his first of two field goals to put the Broncos ahead 18-14 heading into intermission. Boise would add to their lead in the third quarter on Gallardo's second touchdown pass reception and another field goal from Brotzman to give the Broncos a 28 -14 lead heading into the final period.

Tulsa would attempt a fourth quarter rally beginning on a 55 yard touchdown pass to Slick Shelley to bring them within a touchdown with 9:29 left to go in the game. The Golden Hurricane had a chance with under two minutes remaining to tie the game but were stopped and Boise held on to win 28-21.

Moore finished the game with 187 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. He maintained his composure throughout the game and was aided in part by the running of Doug Martin and Jeremy Avery who combined for 285 yards rushing. The win brings Boise's record to 6-0 and Tulsa now drops to 4-2.

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