BOISE – Spencer Danielson didn’t even wait for the questions to start coming his way.
“Obviously frustrated with how Saturday night went,” Danielson said.
Boise State’s defensive coordinator, who typically jokes with the media and waits for a question to be asked, was much more business-like on Monday during his weekly meeting with the media.
After his defense gave up 532 yards and struggled in a 31-28 loss to BYU last Saturday, Danielson was in no mood to joke around. And he took all of the blame on himself.
“It was a huge game for this place, a huge game for our players and obviously not a reflection of who I feel we are as a defense,” Danielson said. “And I take full responsibility for that. Our players played hard. We obviously didn’t play to the standard we want to play with and that 100 percent falls on me.”
Boise State will be back in action Saturday at Nevada for an 8:30 p.m MT start on CBS Sports Network.
Asked what exactly went wrong against the Cougars, Danielson quipped, “There’s a long list.”
He pointed first to the tackling. Boise State missed several tackles that led to big plays for BYU.
“We’ve been a really good tackling team,” Danielson said. “But Saturday night we were not. That was by far our worst tackling game.”
Danielson also pointed to the lack of pressure on Hall, who was hurried just twice and didn’t get sacked once by Boise State’s defense. Hall had several seconds to sit in the pocket and wait for receivers to come open, which led to more big plays.
“I have to find more ways to create pressure because we didn’t get any pressure Saturday night which was a huge factor,” Danielson said.
“We have to find ways to pressure and confuse the quarterback. That is a paramount deal for our defense and we obviously didn’t get it done this last weekend and it showed up. When a guy is able to sit back there and make the reads and he played a great game, hats off to what he did, but we can’t be successful if we can’t find a way to get to the quarterback. We have to find better ways to get to him and I’ve got to make sure I put these guys in much better spots.”
Boise State entered the game with the No. 1 pass defense in the nation at just 133.6 passing yards allowed per game. BYU nearly doubled that by halftime, and quarterback Jaren Hall finished with 377 yards through the air.
The Broncos had only given up six passing touchdowns through the first eight games. BYU had four passing touchdowns alone on Saturday.
“They are a very talented offense,” Danielson said. “We knew coming in obviously their record didn’t quite reflect who they were as an offense. Every team they played against , hey moved the ball and scored points and they played a lot of talented team.
“We didn’t take them lightly because of the record they have. We knew from the quarterback to the tailbacks to how big their O-line was, we felt it was the best receiving core we’d seen all year going into the game and obviously still feel the same way.”
Danielson said the secondary could have played better but also attributed some of the issues back to the lack of pass rush.
“We gave up a lot of passing yards but it wasn’t just because one guy’s mistake in the secondary,” Danielson said. “It’s not enough pressure on the quarterback, it’s eye control issues, it’;s all these different things that come.”
One positive? Danielson liked his group’s energy.
“There were a lot of plays on film that were sloppy, but our guys were playing hard,” Danielson said.
Boise State’s defense, which entered with the No. 2 total defense and the No. 12 scoring defense in the country, didn’t get a single three-and-out against BYU. All 11 BYU drives reached Boise State territory.
The Broncos entered the game allowing just 4.3 passing first downs per game, but gave up a staggering 19 first downs through the air to BYU.
The Cougars also ran a staggering 74 offensive plays, which was nearly 20 more than the 55.9 average the Broncos typically are on the field for on defense. Danielson said that also contributed to the struggles in the second half, when the defense allowed 21 points in the final 15:25 of the game.
“We had 45 snaps on defense in the first half,” Danielson said. “I think it’s a 10-14 ballgame with three minutes left in the third, so I’m not going to say we got worn down, but there was a little bit of that. We couldn’t get off the field. We were dealing with first-and-10 and then second-and-3. They did a great job showing different looks and we were reeling there and couldn’t find a way to finish it out.
“But once again I take full responsibility. We have a great group of players that love playing for each other, and now it’s just fine tuning a lot of these details.”
Boise State’s defense likely will be much better Saturday at Nevada, partly because of their opponent. The Wolf Pack rank 110th nationally in scoring offense at just 20.8 points per game and 126th in total offense at just 284.1 yards per game.
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