Boise State’s Defense Keys 17-10 Fiesta Bowl Victory over TCU

in Bowl Season by bcsknowhow — January 4, 2010 at 11:58 pm | 1 comment

Boise State’s defense shut down Andy Dalton and the TCU Horned Frogs while the Broncos did just enough on offense to win their second Fiesta Bowl in four years, 17-10.

Going into the game, the key matchup everyone was watching was the vaunted TCU defense against a dynamic and explosive Boise State offense. Those two unit neutralized one another, and it was left up to the other side of the ball for both teams to decide this one.

The Horned Frog’s offense was no slouch this season, but the Broncos were able to hold TCU down just long enough to come out of Arizona with a win.

In this matchup of two undefeated non-BCS conference schools, both would have liked to have been included in the national title discussion, but the Fiesta Bowl was the best they could have hoped for.

In TCU’s first-ever BCS bowl, Gary Patterson’s squad looked uneven from the start, as Dalton was intercepted three times.

After the Broncos scored the game’s first ten points, Dalton finally led the Horned Frogs offense to some points, connecting with Curtis Clay for a 30-yard score.

The third quarter was uneventful, however the Horned Frogs did finally tie up the game after a short field goal near the end of the quarter was good.

The biggest play of the game came after the teams had traded punts and Boise seemed to be punting one more time after another failed drive.

But the Broncos rose to national prominence on the strength of the trick plays that got them the Fiesta Bowl crown in 2007, and they used those “gadget” plays one more time, this time on a fake punt.

After the Bronco punted completed a pass for the first down, it was only a matter of time before Broncos quarterback Kellen Moore led his team down the field, and finished the drive off by handing the ball to running back Doug Martin, who finished the drive with a TD run, giving the Broncos the game-winning score.

A late drive from Dalton and the Frogs came up empty after a tipped pass was intercepted for the third and final time by the Boise defense, capping the victory for the Broncos.

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Tags: boise state broncos brandon thompson fake punt featured fiesta bowl gary patterson kellen moore tcu horned frogs