Boise State inches closer to major bowl

TULSA, Okla. – With No. 5 Boise State playing from behind for the first time this season, quarterback Kellen Moore was at his best.

Moore threw two short touchdown passes to Tommy Gallarda, and the undefeated Broncos survived a late scare from Tulsa to escape with a 28-21 victory Wednesday night in one of the last road tests standing between them and another trip to the BCS.

Coach Chris Petersen called it a “solid win” but he doubted it would be the kind of impressive statement pollsters were looking for as the Broncos (6-0) had the college football stage to themselves the same week the BCS standings are to be released for the first time.

“It’s usually never good enough for a lot of people, usually including us and our team,” Petersen said. “Tulsa’s a good team, and this was going to be a good test for us. I think we battled hard against some really explosive playmakers.

“The important thing is that we get a little bit better. Teams don’t stay the same, and we won’t either. We either need to get better or we’re going to get passed by.”

With Boise State down twice early, Moore was perfect on two scoring drives to put the Broncos ahead to stay. He threw an 8-yard lob to Gallarda in the back corner of the end zone for an 8-7 lead, and followed that with a 17-yard TD pass to Austin Pettis as Boise State went ahead 15-14.

The lead eventually grew to 28-14 on the second of two field goals by Kyle Brotzman.

“It was good for us because I believe being down like that woke us up,” running back Doug Martin said.

Tulsa (4-2) got within 28-21 in the fourth quarter when G.J. Kinne and Slick Shelley connected on consecutive passes for 91 yards, including a 55-yarder for a touchdown. The Golden Hurricane had one last chance to tie it in the final 2 minutes, but Boise State forced its fourth three-and-out of the second half to ice the game.

“There’s a lot of momentum going the opposite way when you’re playing on the road,” Petersen said. “We fought hard enough and responded well enough to do what we needed to do.”

Moore finished with 187 yards passing and three touchdown passes. He had a 2-yard touchdown pass to Gallarda in the third quarter.

Martin had 112 yards on 23 carries in his second 100-yard game since moving back to offense after the Broncos lost running back D.J. Harper to a knee injury. Jeremy Avery added 73 yards as Boise State trampled Tulsa on the ground in the third quarter and then held on for the win.

Martin had 83 of his team’s 104 yards rushing in the third quarter as Boise State controlled the ball for all but 2:48 of the period.