BOISE – The Boise State football team is focusing this week to end a disturbing trend of poor play in the second half of games, particularly on offense.
In three games this season the Broncos have scored 85 points in the first half and just 22 points in the second half.
Not coincidentally the Broncos are 1-2 to start the year.
“There’s obviously a trend there after three games and we’re not going to run from that,” Boise State offensive coordinator Tim Plough said. “The numbers are what they are. They are not good.”
Boise State will look to turn things around when it travels to Logan, Utah, to open Mountain West play at Utah State at 10 a.m. Saturday on CBS.
The Broncos have scored points and moved the ball pretty much at will in the first half of the three games, but for whatever reason have struggled to much of anything in the second half.
Boise State is averaging 251.3 yards of offense in the first half compared to just 97.7 yards in the second half.
“The numbers bare out – the third quarter has been awful,” Plough said. “We’re not going to shy away from that. We have to get that fixed and we will get that fixed. The guys are all in this together and we’re going to do it as a unit.
“We just have to get off to the same start and the same mindset and urgency that we’ve had in the fist half where we’ve started off every game pretty well. We just have to find that consistency for four quarters.”
A big issue in the second half has been Boise State’s inability to run the football. The Broncos had five true rushing plays for minus-4 yards in the second half of a 36-31 loss at UCF in the season opener, and 10 rushes for minus-2 yards in the second half of last week’s 21-20 loss to Oklahoma State.
“When we’re in tempo and we get going, we’re as good as anybody; but right now our issues are starting the drives and getting that first, first down,” Plough said. “If we get that first, first down, we get rolling and we’re pretty successful.”
The poor play after halftime is either one of two things – a lack of execution by the players or a lack of adjustments being made by the coaching staff.
Both Plough and head coach Andy Avalos pointed to adjustments and took the blame.
“No question that starts with us and how we’re leading and adjusting behind the scenes and how we’re analyzing in-game,” Avalos said. “We’ve had some great conversations as coaches and we feel good about our plan moving forward. We actually had some great conversations today after practice with the players and they are excited about it too.
“This is a game of adjustments and we have (to adjust) as fast as possible, as clear and concise as possible. We’ve evaluated ourselves again – it starts with us as coaches. We look forward to making those improvements.”
Boise State had three 3-and-outs in the third quarter at UCF. They only ran six plays in the third quarter last week against Oklahoma State and had two 3-and-outs again.
Oklahoma State got the ball to start the third quarter and put together a near 8-minute drive before the Broncos even got the ball. The Cowboys had the ball for 12:18 of the third quarter compared to just 2:42 for the Broncos.
And that was after a tough finish to the second quarter when running back George Holani fumbled the ball on the first play of a drive deep in Boise State territory and set up an Oklahoma State touchdown.
Throw in halftime and the long Oklahoma State drive to start the second half and Boise State’s offense went nearly 45 minutes without running a play.
“We had the fumble going in right before the half which was a momentum drain,” Plough said. “It kind of sucked the life out of us a little bit … and that was a long time to sit and think about that fumble and what we had done as an offense. And then we had the first 3-and-out and we had another drive where I think we dropped a pass and the anxiety starts to mount of, ‘oh shoot, we have to get going.’”
Boise State’s defense has shown to make adjustments and improve numbers from the first half to the second half. The Broncos have allowed 45 points in the first half compared to just 22 in the second half. And the defense has kept each of the last two opponents, UTEP and Oklahoma State, scoreless in the second half.
It hasn’t been the same story offensively. The Broncos have scored just 10 total points in the third quarter of the three games so far. They have 10 touchdowns in the first half, but just two in the second half.
Stopping the trend appears even more important this week. Utah State has scored at least 20 points in the second half in all three games and has scored 85 points in the second half compared to 22 for the Broncos.
“We’ve shown we can move the ball on anybody,” Plough said. “We will solve it and get it fixed.”
