Hot! Tcu Shocks Boise State Football Team 36

By Chadd Cripe ccripe@idahostatesman.com 2011 Idaho Statesman

For the second year in a row, the Boise State football team s Bowl Championship Series dreams were riding on a kick Saturday afternoon at Bronco Stadium.

And for the second straight time, that kick sailed wide right.

Redshirt freshman Dan Goodale missed a 39-yard field goal on the final play of the game as the No. 5 Broncos lost 36-35 to the TCU Horned Frogs.

Just missed opportunities, senior quarterback Kellen Moore said of his thoughts, echoing what he said in a similar situation last year in Reno. I don t think it s one play. There are a variety of plays that you look back and try to improve on those and maybe we have a little better opportunity. But they made more plays than us.

The Horned Frogs scored a touchdown and two-point conversion with 1:05 left in the game to take the 36-35 lead. That touchdown drive immediately followed a fumble by walk-on tailback Drew Wright when it looked like the Broncos were going to run out the clock and win 35-28.

TCU snapped Boise State s national-best 35-game home winning streak and is the first conference opponent to win on the blue since Idaho in 1998.

Boise State falls to 8-1 and most likely will play in the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas like last year or the Poinsettia Bowl. They have the first two selections from Mountain West teams.

Some game notes:

Boise State played much of Saturday s game without its top three cornerbacks Jerrell Gavins (out for the year), Jamar Taylor (started, but left early with nagging leg injury) and Ebo Makinde (leg injury). True freshman Lee Hightower and sophomore Quaylon Ewing-Burton took over. Hightower got burned on one of three first-half deep balls for touchdowns the other two were on Makinde and Ewing-Burton twice was unable to knock down a pass at the goal line on the Horned Frogs decisive final drive. Hightower did make a key interception in the fourth quarter. They were getting us on double moves, Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. That s not totally just on the secondary. Everybody s involved. We ve got to get some pressure. TCU quarterback Casey Pachall threw for 473 yards, five touchdowns and a two-point conversion. We knew they had been banged up at corner and they play their secondary like us, they sit on routes, TCU coach Gary Patterson said. We knew we weren t going to be able to drive on that defense, so we were going to have to create some big plays.