Broncos put nation's longest win streak on line versus Huskies

Sep 5, 2007, 16:08 GMT

Seattle, WA - Moving up to the 22nd spot in the top-25 this week, the Boise State Broncos try to extend the nation's longest winning streak this weekend when they drop in on the Washington Huskies.

Boise State wasted little time in season-opener, blowing away Weber State last Thursday night by a score of 56-7. The victory extended the team's win streak to 14 in a row, following the only undefeated 2006 campaign among I-A programs, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision.

As for the Huskies, they too won their first game of the season last week, routing the Syracuse Orange in the Carrier Dome by a final of 42-12. This is the first of two games that Washington will play against a member of the Western Athletic Conference, with the team heading to Honolulu to close out the regular season the first of December versus high-flying Hawaii.

This game marks the first-ever meeting between these two schools on the gridiron.

With everyone now gunning for the Broncos, it was important for the squad to get off to a quick start versus Weber State, and that's exactly what happened. By the end of the first half the Broncos were ahead by four touchdowns. At the break it was 49 points and early in the third the advantage had swelled to 56-0 before the offense called off the dogs. Ian Johnson was back to his old self, carrying the ball 18 times for 128 yards and three touchdowns before taking a seat. Jeremy Avery chipped in 105 yards and another two rushing scores, while D.J. Harper and Vinny Perretta both found the end zone on runs as well. Taking much of the heat off quarterback Taylor Tharp (14-of-19, 184 yards, one touchdown), the Broncos ran the ball 55 times and gained 371 yards on the ground. With Johnson doing most of the heavy lifting, BSU ranked first in the WAC and sixth in the nation in rushing in 2006 with 214.2 ypg, helping the squad to become the second-highest scoring team in the country (behind only Hawaii) with close to 40 ppg.

Racing out to such a fast start, the Broncos again forced an opponent to pass more than it would have liked to. In the case of Weber State, the Wildcats completed just 11 passes on the night, resulting in a paltry 71 yards. Add to that a mere 74 yards rushing and it looked like Boise State was already in mid-season form. Weber State barely averaged two and a half yards per play and managed to convert just 4-of-16 on third down plays. Ryan Winterswyk and Josh Bean led the way for the BSU defense with eight tackles apiece, while Sean Bingham had the only sack of the game. Last season the run defense held opponents to less than 90 ypg, which was first in the WAC and eighth in the country. In terms of total defense, Boise State held foes to just 284 ypg, tops in the league and 14th nationally. Although the unit has lost two crucial performers in Korey Hall and Colt Brooks, Marty Tadman is still around to lay out big hits.

Getting the starting nod ahead of senior Carl Bonnell, sophomore signal-caller Jake Locker made a huge splash for the Huskies in his debut versus Syracuse. Locker connected on 14-of-19 passing for 142 yards and ran for another 83 yards on 10 carries, resulting in a pair of touchdowns. As a team, Washington pounded the ball on the ground over and over again, resulting in 302 yards and an average of close to seven and a half yards per attempt. Louis Rankin accounted for nearly half the team's production on the ground with a career- high 147 yards on 17 carries, scoring half of the unit's six touchdowns as well. The rushing total for the Huskies was more than twice the team's average from a year ago when the squad was putting up a mere 127.9 ypg to rank seventh in the Pac-10 Conference.

Syracuse may have been at home against the Huskies, but the team was completely out of its element, unable to do much of anything on offense. Like Locker for Washington, Andrew Robinson was also making his first start under center for the Orange, but in his case the results were not nearly as favorable. Robinson did connect on 20-of-32 passes, for 199 yards and a score, but he was sacked a total of seven times. Although he was credited with only four total tackles on the night, Greyson Gunheim charged into the Syracuse backfield to post a pair of sacks, while Caesar Rayford added 1.5 sacks as well. For a team that had some trouble getting to the opposing quarterback a season ago, the Huskies are off to a good start in that area. That's the sort of energy on the front line that will go a long way in helping a program that ranked 102nd in the nation in pass defense a season ago with 240.2 ypg allowed.

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