Boise State’s pass defense is a ‘huge concern.’ Coaches want better execution

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Boise State’s defense has done a few things to hang its hat on through the first couple of games of the season.

The Broncos’ D has stopped all five fourth-down attempts in the first two games, hauled in an interception, kept Memphis scoreless for the entire second half, and looked much improved in its tackling.

But if there’s one aspect of the defense that’s a cause for concern, it’s the pass defense, which is giving up a slew of big plays.

Boise State has allowed 762 yards through the air this season — 378 at Oregon and 384 against Memphis. Out of 137 FBS teams, the average of 381 passing yards allowed per game ranks 131st in the country.

“Obviously, it’s a huge concern,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said Monday. “We’re going through some things this week in practice to put our guys in those situations. We have to win 50-50 balls more.”

The Broncos allowed passing plays of 15 yards or more on eight occasions against Oregon, and six more times against Memphis. Those 14 chunk plays amount to 584 total yards — 76.6% of the entire air yardage given up by Boise State.

Four of those plays against Memphis came in the first half, when the Tigers’ spread offense put a lot of pressure on the linebackers and secondary. The largest play of the game saw the Broncos send the house at Memphis QB Marcus Stokes, who found tight end Hunter Tipton on a little pop pass over the top for an 87-yard touchdown.

“Overall, it’s an execution issue, but the way that they presented the play caused a little issue for our guys and some indecision,” Boise State defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said Monday. “If there’s indecision out there, ultimately that’s on me, and so I needed to clean that up.”

The rest of Memphis’ big plays in the first half came with Boise State sending the blitz. Chinander moved away from that in the second half, forcing Stokes into shorter-range passes and ultimately shutting out the Tigers.

Don’t expect Boise State to move away from the blitz, though — at the end of the day, the Broncos have faced a Heisman Trophy candidate QB in Oregon’s Dante Moore, and a Memphis offense that asks opposing defenses to cover a lot of space. Danielson said Monday that he doesn’t want to put zero pressure on the opposition quarterback, and that it’s simply a case of execution on the pass rush’s end.

“We are going to be on the attack defensively, but we have to execute,” Danielson said. “(Allowing) 500 yards of offense is not executing. “There are some good stops in there; we finished the game well. I want our players to understand I’m proud of how they finished, but 500 yards of offense is not good.”

This week’s opponent, FCS program South Dakota, features a quarterback completing nearly 70% of his throws, Austyn Modrzewski, for 727 yards and 11 touchdowns through three games. The Coyotes have run for 753 yards in those three wins, showing a very balanced offense, and they are averaging over 500 yards of total offense per game.

Boise State vs. South Dakota

When: 8 p.m. Mountain time Saturday
Where: Albertsons Stadium (34,423, Turf)
TV: CBS Sports Network (Chris Lewis, Randy Cross)
Radio: KBOI 670-AM and KBOI 93.1-FM/Sirius XM Ch. 84 (Bob Behler, Mike Callahan)
Records: Boise State 1-1, 0-0; South Dakota 3-0, 0-0
Series: Boise State leads the series 1-0
Vegas line: Boise State by 22.5 points
Weather: High of 76, low of 52, humidity 45%, sunny, 0% chance of rain.