BOISE, Idaho — Kellen Moore and Austin Pettis helped keep Boise State unbeaten. And that’s about it for nice things the Broncos could say about this one.
Moore threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Austin Pettis, as the fifth-ranked Broncos (5-0) knocked off second-tier UC Davis 34-16 Saturday night.
“I’m frustrated with a couple different phases,” Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. “Too many penalties, and when you can’t score inside the 4 and 5 yard line when you have multiple tries, that’s frustrating.”
“We’ll have their attention without question here and get a few things corrected.”
The Broncos never trailed or let the Aggies (1-3) get any closer than nine points in the second half, but it was hardly the dominating performance they expected against a Championship Subdivision team.
The Broncos struggled to get their running game rolling, were flagged nine times and their offense produced just 13 points on four first-half trips inside the 20.
Jeremy Avery and Doug Martin managed just 101 total yards rushing against a spunky Aggies defense that held the Broncos to less than half their season average of 214.4.
Moore was 22 of 31 with one interception, Pettis led Boise State receivers with 10 catches for 129 yards and Titus Young had six for 83 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown that put the Broncos up 20-3 early in the third quarter.
But the Aggies managed to keep it close.
After Young’s touchdown, the Aggies marched 78 yards in five plays, scoring when quarterback Greg Denham fired a 21-yard TD to Sean Creadick.
Boise State responded when Moore tossed a 2-yard TD to Pettis, but the Aggies came right back. This time Denham, who was 24 of 36 for 206 yards, engineered a 13-play, 72-yard drive that was capped by his second TD to Creadick, a 4-yarder. The Aggies missed the ensuing extra point.
But the Bronco defense stiffened, enabling the offense to put the game away late when Martin ran for a score from four yards out.
“Everybody said we didn’t have a chance,” said UC Davis coach Bob Biggs, who recruited Petersen to play quarterback for the Aggies in 1985. “But they played hard from the first down to last down. I couldn’t be prouder. I thought the effort was unbelievable against a very good football team.”
The Broncos defense held the Aggies to just 28 yards rushing. But the Broncos were penalized nine times for 61 yards, and the defense failed to force a turnover.
The Broncos offense rolled up 386 yards, but struggled to sustain drives, converting just four of 10 third downs and generally didn’t win any style points that might help them in the polls and the BCS standings.
“I don’t really know. I really don’t care. I honestly don’t care,” Petersen said. “We just need to get better and we can’t control any of that type of stuff, even when you play good or sometimes you don’t put your best foot forward. I just hope this game is just really refocuses everybody around here about not paying attention to things like that.”
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