Boise State Blinks, Brilliant Two-Year Run Comes Crashing Down

Is there such a thing as better than perfect?

Sublime, maybe?

Because that’s what Boise State had to be this year. Oregon and Auburn have had the luxury of just being perfect. For those teams, running the gauntlet of a big-time schedule and winning every game has been enough. Even by the skin of their teeth, as Auburn did against Alabama. Even while getting the lucky break of having an opposing kicker gift wrap a win, as Oregon did against Cal.  

Not so for Boise State.

Perfect?

Been there, done that. The Broncos were 14-0 last year. But it wasn’t enough. Not for the BCS system. Not for the Boise fans. Not for this team. Last year’s perfection was just a stepping stone. This year they wanted something more. The National Championship.

And for that to happen, this team would have to be better than perfect.

Week in, week out, the Broncos have been faced with the task of not only beating their opponents, but eviscerating them. Owning them. Never letting up. Not a single player. Not a single moment.

Better than perfect.

Wrap your mind around that.  

Oregon—a team that Boise has beaten each of the last two years—had the luxury of sleepwalking through a game against highly suspect Washington State and coming out ahead.

No one questioned it.

Auburn had to squeak by against Mississippi State (17-14), Clemson (27-24 OT) and Kentucky (37-34).

As long as they stayed perfect, it was enough.

For Boise, strangely enough, despite a schedule loaded with cupcakes, there haven’t really been any days off. The bigger the cupcake, the bigger the pressure on Boise not just to win, but to dominate.   

And all year long, they met this challenge with relish. After pulling victory out of the jaws of defeat against Virginia Tech and following up with a solid win over Oregon State, they went on a rampage, answering their critics as forcefully and completely as they possibly could have, to the tune of 59-0 (New Mexico State), 48-0 (San Jose State), 42-7 (Hawaii), 52-14 (Idaho) and then, perhaps most shocking of all, a 51-0 pasting of a not-so-bad Fresno State program with a well-earned rep for hanging with the big boys.

Not just a physical test for Boise, really, but a mental one.

It had to make you wonder. How long could they keep it up? At what point would the psychological burden of being better than perfect, a burden that grew exponentially every week as they moved within range of the BCS top two, become too much to bear?

At what point would it all come crashing down?

On Saturday night in Reno, we got an answer.

Somewhere in the fourth quarter we discovered that, on this night, Boise, for once, wouldn’t be better than perfect. No blowouts here.

It seemed like a defeat in itself.

But, still, there was the chance, or should we say the expectation, of being at least perfect.   

And right up until the bitter end, it looked as if they would be. It looked that way when Doug Martin took a screen pass 79 yards to the bank, putting Boise up seven with 4:53 left. And it certainly looked that way when Kellen Moore hit a diving Titus Young inside the 10, setting up a chip shot for perfection with exactly :01 on the clock.

And then it happened. As Kyle Brotzman lined up for the kick, reality set in. Not the reality of being not good enough. The reality of recognizing that ungodly expectations, the hopes of an entire team, university, city and state, a dream three years in the making, were now riding on your shoulders.

For Brotzman, in that moment, and once again in overtime, it was too much.

Wide left.

Finally, sadly, after 24 consecutive wins dating back to last year, after a 36-1 run since 2008 (the only blemish being a 17-16 loss to TCU in the ’09 Poinsettia Bowl), after a string of heroic beatdowns in 2010, Boise blinked.

Better than perfect.

They gave it a good run.