‘We’ll come back stronger.’ Boise State unable to slow Washington’s explosive offense

Boise State was down by 30 points with less than 5 minutes to play Saturday when quarterback Taylen Green threw his second interception of the game.

But the redshirt sophomore from Lewisville, Texas, had no intention of calling it quits. Green streaked down the field and wrapped up Washington linebacker Carson Bruener for a touchdown-saving tackle.

Toward the end of a season-opening blowout, the Broncos had to relish in such small victories, or there would be no victories at all.

No. 10 Washington gave Boise State more than it could handle in a 56-19 loss Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium. Senior quarterback Michael Penix Jr. picked apart the Boise State defense for 450 passing yards and five touchdowns without an interception, giving a jumpstart to his Heisman Trophy campaign.

Penix was 29-for-40 passing for a 73 percent completion rate and a QB rating of 208.3. The Huskies combined for 19 explosive plays, including 16 passing plays of 15 or more yards. Among those were touchdown receptions of 20, 31, 38 and 44 yards.

“It just comes down to playing with eye control and understanding the plan and sticking to the plan,” Boise State coach Andy Avalos said. “We’ve got to do a much better job as a coaching staff. That starts with me. We understand what we’re coming into here, and the wide receivers that we’re gonna see and a quarterback that is a Heisman candidate.

“Week in and week out, we’re gonna see some personnel that creates great challenges like that, and as we prep and prepare as a coaching staff, we’ll do a better job and we’ll learn from this.”

It was a difficult afternoon for Boise State’s secondary, which saw Penix complete passes to eight different receivers. Junior Rome Odunze collected 132 yards and one touchdown on seven receptions, sophomore Ja’Lynn Polk also reached the century mark with three grabs for 101 yards and a TD, and junior Jalen McMillan totaled 95 yards on a team-high eight receptions, and scored twice.

The Huskies amassed 568 yards of total offense — and they didn’t sustain a long drive until the second quarter, when they scored for the first time.

“We had an opportunity to play what was the best passing offense in the nation last year,” Avalos said. “There’s a few plays that we obviously could have done a much better job ... but those are things we get to learn from as we move forward.

“I love these guys. I mean, I love the secondary, and that’s why I say I’m excited to get back to it tomorrow and work on improving these things, because it’s a group that cares.”

Redshirt senior safety Alexander Teubner led the Broncos’ defense with 11 tackles and one pass breakup, but walked away from Husky Stadium lamenting the stops he didn’t make.

“One thing this team is very capable of doing is learning and not making a lot of the same mistakes twice,” Teubner said. “It’s hard to say there’s anything good from a loss like this, but there’s going to be definitely plenty to learn from. And one thing we will do is put our head down and work.

“Whether there’s 50-plus points on the scoreboard or not, the guys in this locker room won’t quit.”

Boise State led 6-0 after the first quarter thanks to a 7-yard touchdown run from sophomore running back Ashton Jeanty. The 5-foot-9, 210-pounder from Jacksonville, Florida, led the Broncos’ offensive attack with 153 total yards, including a career-best 109 receiving yards, and scored both of the team’s touchdowns.

The early momentum didn’t last. Washington exploded for 28 points in the second quarter to lead 28-12 at the half. The Broncos cut that deficit to 28-19 on their first drive of the second half, with Jeanty taking a screen pass from Green, eluding tacklers and scoring from 50 yards out. The Huskies responded with an 80-yard TD drive and then put the game away.

Boise State finished with 402 yards of total offense. Green (19-for-39) accounted for 244 yards through the air, with one touchdown and two interceptions. He added five carries for 31 yards, but explosive plays were significantly harder to come by for the Broncos. BSU had five passing plays of 15 yards or more and three runs of 10 or more in offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan’s debut.

The Broncos were just 6-for-17 on third down conversions.

“We’ve got a lot of talent on this offense,” Jeanty said. “Offensively, it came down to execution. Third downs weren’t converted. Against a team like this, you’ve got to drive down the field, you’ve got to score, because they’ve got a high-powered offense, too.”

Boise State returns to action next Saturday for its home opener against UCF. Kickoff is 5 p.m. at Albertsons Stadium.