Boise State Football: 3 takeaways from 2019 MWC title win over Hawaii
By Zach Bigalke
1. Hawaii unable to run the ball and became one-dimensional
At the same time, Boise State’s defense ensured that Hawaii had no chance to engineer a comeback. We have seen Hawaii have solid days running the football, most recently in their road win over San Diego State that ensured the Rainbow Warriors and not the Aztecs would play the Broncos for the conference crown.
Boise State recognized the value that the rushing attack has provided for Hawaii in recent weeks, and they did their best to scheme that out of the Rainbow Warriors offense. Teeing off at the point of attack, the Broncos held Nick Rolovich’s crew to just 79 total yards on the ground as a team.
As a result, more of the pressure for the offensive performance fell on the shoulders of quarterback Cole McDonald. After a revelatory season in 2018, McDonald has regressed back to the mean somewhat in 2019. He is still a dangerous threat with his arm, though, and he finished the game against Boise State with 244 yards on 20-of-36 passing.
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McDonald, though, struggled to put points on the scoreboard. The quarterback failed to throw a touchdown strike, and he finished with negative rushing yardage. He also threw an interception and coughed up a fumble on a sack that Boise State converted into a pair of touchdowns. Unable to find any balance to their offense, Hawaii leaned heavily on a quarterback who just couldn’t meet that standard on Saturday against a tough Broncos defense.