BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Ashton Jeanty ran for 209 yards and three touchdowns and No. 12 Boise State held off upset-minded Nevada 28-21 on Saturday night for its seventh straight victory.
Boise State (8-1, 5-0 Mountain West, No. 12 CFP) remained in strong position among the Group of Five teams vying for the automatic bid to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. The Broncos’ lone loss was a 37-34 setback at now-No. 1 Oregon.
“This is the compete month,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “What we did prior, it does not matter. It’s all about going 1-0 each week. … But we found a way to win. That’s a testament to our players. And we will build more from this game than we would with a big blow out.”
This one wasn’t easy, though early it looked as if it might be a rout.
Boise State’s offense sputtered until the fourth quarter when Maddux Madsen engineered a 10-play, 62-yard drive that ended with Jeanty’s 2-yard touchdown run — but only after a review from the replay booth overturned an interception on the 1.
Nevada (3-8, 0-5) appeared headed for a score before Sean Dollars fumbled on the 1 and the Broncos recovered in the end zone.
“There were some unfortunate breaks in this game that fell their way,” Nevada coach Jeff Choate said. “They created some of them and we gave them some of them. And that’s how the game goes at times.”
Boise State scored on its first two possessions. Matt Lauter hauled in an 11-yard TD pass, and Jeanty bulled his way into the end zone on a 4-yard run to make it 14-0 midway through the first quarter.
The Wolfpack clawed their way back, scoring on 17-yard run by quarterback Brendon Lewis and a 44-yard pass from wide receiver Marcus Bellon to Caleb Ramseur to tie it.
Boise State looked shaky to start the second half, muffing the kickoff before recovering it at the 5. Then, the Broncos marched 95 yards on eight plays, scoring Jeanty’s 1-yard run.
Lewis was 17 of 26 for 188 yards. He also had a touchdown run.
Nevada: While the Wolfpack watched their slim hopes of achieving bowl eligibility end, Choate in his first season at Nevada has the program headed in the right direction. Nevada has been a hard-luck team, losing five games by a touchdown or less, and was competitive against the Broncos for most of the game.
“That’s kind of the type of program I want to build here,” Choate said. “Really resilient and really tough, don’t make excuses and just go to work. We’ve had some gut-wrenching losses against some good teams and this is just another one of those unfortunately. But that’s part of the journey and we’re just going to keep battling.”
Boise State: With more teams finding success at containing Jeanty, the Broncos need more consistent play out of Madsen. The sophomore quarterback has shown his potential at times this season, but against Nevada he threw one interception along with two more that were called back on penalty and review, and was off-target in key situations.
Nevada: Hosts Air Force on Nov. 23.
Boise State: At San Jose State next Saturday.
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