11/05/24
November 27, 2010
Nevada Destroys Boise State's Title Hopes: Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman missed two field goals -- one at the end of regulation that would have won the game, another in overtime -- in a 34-31 loss to conference rival Nevada Friday night. The defeat ended Boise State's 24-game winning streak and dashed their hopes of playing for the Bowl Championship Series title.
Missed chip-shot field goals have played a part in a few games with national title implications in the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, Cal missed a 29 yard field goal which could have been the difference in a upset bid versus Oregon, who won 15-13.
posted by dyams at 10:07 AM on November 27, 2010
Sorry kid, you just cost Boise State/WAC $18,000,000. Epic collapse.
posted by sgtcookzane at 10:16 AM on November 27, 2010
After yesterday's games, especially Auburn's epic comeback, it's hard to argue against a Oregon-Auburn national championship.
posted by cjets at 10:47 AM on November 27, 2010
To be fair to Brotzman, his highly lauded team should never have been in that situation. Sure, it was his to win but it was the teams loss. The amount of vitriol being directed at Brotzman is pretty disgusting. He is a kid, playing football. A kid who walked on and has contributed plenty to the winning at Boise State, Brotzman already has broken the school marks for career points, field goals and PATs, consecutive PATs made and single-season punting average.
posted by geekyguy at 11:09 AM on November 27, 2010
Damn, sounds like I missed one helluva game with an back and forth ending. And unless the Old Ball Coach comes up with something- and Garcia doesn't fall apart like he has so many times over his career- it looks like Oregon-Auburn.
posted by jmd82 at 11:16 AM on November 27, 2010
The amount of vitriol being directed at Brotzman is pretty disgusting.
It's always (and obviously) disgusting, but that's society today in the computer/twitter/facebook/etc. age. Nothing but classless people shooting off their mouths and ripping other people from the safety of their computer keyboard. One reason I appreciate this site is the fact that type of talk is generally avoided, and I have never been involved in twitter or facebook. In schools, with kids, it's becoming horrendous, and the talk generated on those sites cause huge problems. Bullying, threatening, instigating issues. Ridiculous, and getting worse all the time.
Now that I've vented through that bit of editorializing, I'm sure no amount of mean-spirited backlash directed at Brotzman will even come close to the disappointment he feels himself. He knows a kick like that has to be automatic. It's sad, but kickers are in that position; make a kick, you're a hero. Miss a kick, you're the scapegoat.
posted by dyams at 11:29 AM on November 27, 2010
Nevada didn't lead until that final kick, but you have to credit them for not giving up, and question Boise State's failure to deal with a very, very limited Nevada playbook (one RB up the gut, one WR, a little bit of movement by the QB) in the second half.
The reason everyone focuses on Brotzman is that Boise did what they've done so many times before -- pull out a ridiculous play in the death when the outcome is on the line -- and missing the kick didn't follow that script.
I'll admit that I'm disappointed -- TCU really doesn't have the same charm -- but so it goes.
posted by etagloh at 11:44 AM on November 27, 2010
That was a remarkable game, and Nevada is a good team. Maybe better than people have given them credit for. Either one of those teams could beat a lot of the high profile traditional powerhouse teams this year.
The thing that bothers me is that upon losing, Boise State immediately gets thrown out of the bowl bid airplane without a parachute. The talk was that they would get "relegated" to a lower echelon game such as the Humanitarian Bowl.
I don't like the all or nothing mentality about this. Boise lost to a ranked team. Now they're being shafted by all the people who were disturbed that they should have ever been ranked as high as third to begin with.
They were performing a high wire act with their sustained excellence on the national stage and the football powers have decreed that there is no safety net for programs they think have no rightful place at the table. Lose and you don't even get a sniff of a halfway decent bowl game. You plummet right down to Weed Eater Bowl territory.
If Boise State's classic bowl win over Oklahoma had come during the last game of the regular season, there's no way that the Sooners would have been sent to a low level bowl game.
Boise deserves to play a quality team in a quality bowl game.
posted by beaverboard at 11:54 AM on November 27, 2010
Sorry kid, you just cost Boise State/WAC $18,000,000.
Football is a team game.
Dyams and Geeky-absofuckinglutely. The kicker wasn't responsible for the complete second half shutdown the Wolfpack defense pulled; he wasn't responsible for the great play of Kaepernick and company going the other way. I live in Reno and was as happy as anyone when he missed the field goal(s), but I felt horrible for the kid for missing them. You just had to know that the shouting interweb dickheads would be all over him.
Etagloh-the Wolfpack playbook isn't as simple as it may appear. Chris Ault has been refining the pistol offense for over twenty years, and it is as nuanced as any in college football. It's designed to freeze linebackers by making pretty much every play look exactly alike, but the variety is in the details.
Boise deserves to play a quality team in a quality bowl game.
Yes, they do. So does Nevada, especially if they should end up WAC champions.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:39 PM on November 27, 2010
always tough to be the scapegoat of a game, something kickers have to be able to deal with, as it will happen throughout their careers. They also get carried off on other's shoulders for making a 25 yard field goal that wins a game, so I guess it goes with the territory. But, wow, huge implications for this game, and unfortunately for Brotzman he's taking the hit for it.
At halftime of the Iron Bowl it looked like Boise State was a shoe in for the BCS Championship game, now it's the Humanitarian Bowl?
And, somewhere in Ohio, one E. Gordon Gee is chuckling to himself.
posted by dviking at 12:45 PM on November 27, 2010
It's designed to freeze linebackers by making pretty much every play look exactly alike
I'll admit that I'm not attuned to the subtleties here, but I didn't see that many variations on "Vai Taua smashes through the middle of the D-line." But I'm not taking anything away from Nevada here.
Lose and you don't even get a sniff of a halfway decent bowl game. You plummet right down to Weed Eater Bowl territory.
Especially given that there'll be at least a couple of slightly embarrassing automatic qualifiers from the BCS cartel conferences, while Boise State probably ends up notching up a basketball score at the Metamucil Bowl.
posted by etagloh at 01:43 PM on November 27, 2010
Just watched the replay of the kick at the end of regulation. How was that a missed kick? It looked like it went through to me.
I thought it was good also until I saw nevada celebrating. Maybe it was just the angle?
posted by sgtcookzane at 01:46 PM on November 27, 2010
I confess that I have disliked Boise State ever since they hosted Boston College in the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl. During the dinner that is held an evening or two before the game, one of the Boise State (non-athletic) staff members proceeded to ridicule the name of Marcus Kiwanuka, who is of Ugandan descent, and whose grandfather had at one time been the Ugandan Prime Minister. It was a cheap thing to do, and when BC managed to win the game, I was quite gratified.
Fast forward to this year and the controversy over Boise State's national championship hopes. The center of contention has been whether or not Boise State, were they to play in a major conference, would have gone undefeated. The Nevada game illustrates what many have been saying: when you play good quality teams within your conference, week after week, you cannot afford a less-than-excellent performance in any week. It appeared that Boise State was not at its best last night, and their coach seemed to say that after the game. You can afford to do this against New Mexico State or even Fresno State, but if you are in the Big Ten, for example, you cannot afford a bad game against a Penn State, or a Northwestern, or even an Indiana or Purdue. I have argued that Boise State, in the SEC or the Big Ten or even the Pac 10 would be a 9-2 or an 8-3 team at this point in the season. Don't get me wrong, they are a good football team. They just aren't as good as many made them out to be. The sad part is that those who were front-running with them will now begin to put them down below the level they deserve.
posted by Howard_T at 02:56 PM on November 27, 2010
Kyle Brotzman is going to remember that 26 yard attempt for the rest of his life.