Monday, Oct. 19, 2009

Boise State football has plenty of room to improve

By BY CHADD CRIPE

Sloppy.

It isn't usually a word associated with the Boise State football team.

This year, though, the Broncos have been just that.

Fumbled snaps, handoffs, pitches and punts. Botched field goals. Red-zone stumbles. Explosive scoring plays for opponents.

All have prevented the No. 6 Broncos (6-0) from putting together the type of performances they need to impress voters and boost their long-shot bid for a berth in the BCS National Championship Game - particularly the past two games, when they failed to blow out UC Davis (34-16) and Tulsa (28-21).

Coach Chris Petersen has challenged his team to clean up those mistakes as the Broncos re-enter WAC play Saturday at Hawaii (9:05 p.m. MDT, KTVB).

"We all feel on this team that we just have more to us," said Petersen, who is 41-4 in four seasons. "And I don't know - some teams can't get there. We've mapped out some things that we think we need to do to take the next step. ... It has nothing to do with rankings or winning or losing. It's, 'Are we playing as well as we can play and are we headed in the right direction?'"

Since the calendar flipped to October, the answers to those questions certainly are "no."

The trend might even date back to the Broncos' season-opening defeat of Oregon, a game they should have won by a more lopsided score than 19-8.

"After that Oregon game, we kind of slowed it down a little bit," junior wide receiver Austin Pettis said. "We need to get back to that little chip on our shoulder."

That's where the Broncos might get some help from their critics. Pettis watches ESPN regularly and has heard the talking heads who say the Broncos don't belong at their current perch - No. 4 in the BCS standings - and might not even make a BCS bowl.

"We don't want to really pay attention to that too much," Pettis said, "but that's in the back of everyone's mind as we go day in and day out to workouts."

The Broncos still have seven games left - more than half of their regular-season allotment and all but one of their conference games. So this team is far from defined.

"In every game, we look real good," Petersen said, "but in terms of playing at that high level - not perfect by any stretch, we know that's not going to happen - but playing at that high level and being finishers when we have opportunities to do that, we're getting there but we're not there.

"You think about our defense. We played pretty well against an awkward, tough offense (at Tulsa), but we give up a couple of easy (touchdowns). ... You just can't give up the easy ones."

Giving those kinds of breaks to their opponents has been this team's bugaboo.

Five of the Broncos' eight turnovers have come from unforced fumbles. Thirteen times the offense has reached the red zone and not found the end zone. Six times the Broncos haven't scored at all.

On defense, five of the 12 touchdowns allowed have covered at least 50 yards. That includes touchdown passes on a trick play and a communication breakdown last week at Tulsa. Plus, the defense hasn't forced a turnover in two games - a trend Petersen says is "not acceptable."

And on special teams the Broncos have missed three field goals and two PATs, botched a two-point conversion and squandered two field-goal attempts on mishandled snaps. That's 19 points lost.

"One thing is for sure - we're going to work our tail off on correcting it," Petersen said of the mistakes. "We're going to have a specific plan for how to take the next step. We are doing everything in our power to get better. Nobody in this program is sitting around paying attention to our record."

There is one thing Petersen says he won't do to make his team more impressive - change his approach to the fourth quarter.

The Broncos drew some fire for taking a field goal on fourth-and-goal at the Tulsa 1-yard line late in the third quarter last week, a kick that made it 28-14. They also punted on four possessions in a row in the fourth, when they ran eight running plays and a short pass on their final nine plays.

Earlier in the quarter, though, quarterback Kellen Moore missed a deep throw to Titus Young that would have put away the game.

Petersen has taken a similar approach throughout his career with a late lead - run the ball, kill the clock and let his defense and special teams close it out.

"We're just trying to win the game," he said. "I think that's evident in how we played the last game in the fourth quarter. We did a lot of things that in a lot of people's view were maybe conservative, but in our view it was what we had to do to win the game. That's always going to be our priority."