Boise State Shuts Out Western Michigan Until the Final Minute
It was 32-0 with 1:03 left. Only then did Western Michigan get on the board, on a 2-yard Cole Cabana run, and that turned a 32-point beating into a 32-7 one. Boise State scored five times before then and never gave the other Broncos (yes, both teams are Broncos) a chance to breathe.
Maddux Madsen threw three touchdown passes on 16 of 23 for 204 yards, and two of them went to tight end Matt Wagner (34 yards in the first quarter, 2 yards in the fourth). Wagner's first score came with a two-point conversion attached, so it was 8-0 before the game was 4 minutes old. Dylan Riley added a 5-yard touchdown run, Ben Ford caught a 6-yarder, and Canaan Moore kicked a 25-yard field goal in the last seconds of the third quarter to make it 25-0.
The yardage fits the score. Boise State gained 381 yards (204 passing, 177 rushing) and turned the ball over zero times. Western Michigan managed 223, only 110 of them through the air, and threw an interception. A team that throws for 110 yards is not scaring anybody.
Boise State is 3-1 and Western Michigan is 2-2, which is a perfectly fine place to be, just not a place you want to be after this one. Cabana's 2-yard run at 1:03 was the only scoring the home side did all afternoon, and it came with the result long settled. The fantasy lesson is simple: three Boise State players cleared 22 points, and the tight end was one of them. Wagner's 28.4 was more than he had scored in any other game this year, and he had only 19.3 points to his name through three games.