GLENDALE, Ariz. — Boise State reached into its bag of tricks again and stunned Texas Christian in a Fiesta Bowl duel of unbeaten BCS busters.
After the Broncos pulled off a gutsy fake punt at their 33-yard line, Doug Martin scored the decisive touchdown to give No. 6 Boise State a 17-10 victory over third- ranked Texas Christian on Monday night.
“I just know that these kids have the most unbelievable heart,” Boise State coach Chris Petersen said.
A 10-10 stalemate came alive when punter Kyle Brotzman hit wide-open Kyle Efaw with a 29-yard strike with about nine minutes to play. Four plays later, Martin dived over a tackler from 2 yards out as the Broncos became the second school ever to go 14-0, joining Ohio State in 2002.
“The fake punt was a great call,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “They outcoached us on that play.”
The trickery evoked memories of Boise State’s BCS debut three years ago, when it pulled out a passel of gadget plays to defeat Oklahoma on the same field.
Unlike that Fiesta Bowl thriller, this game offered little drama until Petersen made another surprising call.
“For us to run a fake like that is gutsy,” Brotzman said. “That’s Boise State football. For him to call something like that and have faith in me to run and execute is awesome.”
The Broncos caught the Horned Frogs napping on the fake punt.
Kellen Moore then completed three consecutive passes to advance to the 2, and Martin scored to put Boise State up 17-10 with 7:21 to go.
“We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game,” Petersen said. “A play here, a play there can turn the tide. Our hat’s off to TCU. This game could have gone either way. We were fortunate to pull it out.”
TCU (12-1) took over at its 1 with 1:06 left and marched to the Boise State 30 before cornerback Brandyn Thompson disrupted a pass by Andy Dalton and Winston Venable picked it off to end the Frogs’ threat.
Boise State 7 3 0 7 — 17
TCU 0 7 3 0 — 10
First quarter: Boise — Thompson 51 interception return (Brotzman kick), 11:28. Second quarter: Boise — FG Brotzman 40, 8:02. TCU — Clay 30 pass from Dalton (Evans kick), 0:49. Third quarter: TCU — FG Evans 29, 3:42. Fourth quarter: Boise — Martin 2 run (Brotzman kick), 7:21. A — 73,227. Boise TCU
First downs 16 17
Rushes-yards 32-77 20-36
Passing 240 272
Comp.-att.-int. 24-40-0 25-44-3
Return yards 107 76
Punts-average 8-44.4 8-48.4
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-0
Penalties-yards 7-70 7-53
Time of possession 34:43 25:17
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Boise State, Martin 16-42, Avery 12-20, Young 3-16, Ke. Moore 1-(minus 1). TCU, Turner 7-22, Tucker 1-9, Wesley 2-8, Jackson 1-7, Dalton 9-(minus 10).
PASSING — Boise State, Ke. Moore 23-39-0-211, Brotzman 1-1-0-29. TCU, Dalton 25-44-3-272.
RECEIVING — Boise State, Young 8-72, Efaw 4-75, Ki. Moore 4-28. C. Potter 2-21, Burroughs 2-9, Gallarda 1-16, Avery 1-13, Pettis 1-5, Martin 1-1. TCU, Kerley 6-65, Christian 5-40, Young 4-68, Hicks 4-45. B. Johnson 3-12, Clay 2-39, Tucker 1-3.
