Boise State Football: 3 takeaways from tough loss at UCF

1. Boise State got away from what was working

In the first quarter, Boise State seemed to have the perfect game plan. While the defense made a huge play in the red zone, picking Dillon Gabriel off and returning it 100 yards for a touchdown to really set the tone, the offense carried the momentum.

Andy Avalos realized the run game wasn’t really working and he let his quarterback make the right throws throughout the first quarter and a half. He was making great throws in the short and intermediate routes, picking apart the UCF defense. He helped lead Boise State to a 24-7 advantage late in the second quarter and then Avalos got away from that game plan.

It seemed like when the lead was 17 late in the second quarter, the first-year head coach was fine with trying to run the ball and milk the clock.

The offense didn’t take many shots and tried to rely on little bubble screens and short dump-offs which were sniffed out quickly by the UCF defense. It felt like Avalos stopped trusting Bachmeier to carry the load even though he was the reason the team was cruising.

If Boise State continued to burn the UCF secondary on those intermediate routes with slants and tosses over the middle, this may have turned out differently.