HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Kellen Moore threw three touchdown passes and No. 15 Boise State rolled to an easy win, beating Southern Mississippi 24-7 on Saturday night with a scoring flurry in the second quarter.
Moore hit 16 of 20 passes for 144 yards and all three touchdowns in the first half, connecting twice with Austin Pettis, for the efficient Broncos (5-0). The redshirt freshman quarterback continued to show an uncanny ability to make the right decisions despite his youth.
He came into the game completing 72 percent of his passes and hit 70 percent (21-of-30) against Southern Miss (2-4), which has lost three straight games for the first time since 2004.
With Moore guiding them, the Broncos look like they could be BCS busters again. It was Boise State’s 25th road win since 2003 and its 14th regular-season win in its last 15 games.
The Broncos were so dominant, they hardly handed the ball off to running back Ian Johnson — though he still managed to make plays. He ran 11 time for 56 yards and made big plays that set up three scores.
The show was Moore’s, however. He came into the game with the No. 6 pass-efficiency rating in the nation and continued to excel against a Southern Miss secondary that’s been vulnerable in new coach Larry Fedora’s first season.
After a scoreless first quarter, Moore hit Jeremy Childs on a screen pass early in the second. Childs took the pass, one of seven in the first half and 10 for 82 yards in the game, down the right sideline, stiff-armed a defender at the 5 and outran two others for a 28-yard touchdown.
On the ensuing drive, Southern Miss made a mistake that would help Boise State pull away. Austin Davis tried a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 at midfield with about 11 minutes left in the half. The Broncos stuffed Davis and a few plays later Johnson ripped off a 23-yard run to the Southern Miss 11. Moore then found Pettis on a 5-yard pass at the back of the end zone to make it 14-0.
Boise State went up 17-0 on Kyle Brotzman’s 32-yard field goal after Southern Miss’ Cameron O’Neal fumbled the kickoff. Johnson, playing on special teams, recovered the fumble.
Southern Miss got in the game on its next series on Damion Fletcher’s 17-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 17-7.
Moore wasn’t done, though. He took the ball at his own 34 and quickly drove the Broncos down the field in the hurry-up offense, starting with about 3 minutes to go. He found Johnson with a dump pass over the middle for 26 yards.
Then he hit Childs for 18 yards before finding Pettis with a 4-yard touchdown with 39 seconds left in the half.
Boise State’s defense ended Davis’ school freshman record for games over 200 yards passing at five and generally held Fedora’s no-huddle spread offense in check, something only Auburn had been able to do.
Davis finished 15 of 34 passing for 160 yards and an interception, while Fletcher rushed for just 69 yards a week after going for a career-high 260 against UTEP.
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