Boise State outclasses Eastern Washington 51-14, QB Jared Taylor exits with injury

BOISE – There are certain hallmarks of the sort of upset Eastern Washington was attempting to pull off on Friday night.

Turnovers in the underdog’s favor: An offense that can keep pace in a back-and-forth game. Maybe a special teams play breaks their way, too.

The trouble for the Eagles was, none of those were true of them against FBS stalwart Boise State, who soundly defeated FCS member Eastern Washington 51-14 in front of a sellout crowd of 32,887 at Albertsons Stadium Friday.

“There was still a lot of good stuff that showed up,” EWU sixth-year receiver Nolan Ulm said. “It’s just when you can’t sustain drives and get into the red zone it’s tough to score.”

Yet all the football was put aside with 8 minutes, 10 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, when, after rushing to his right for six yards, Eastern Washington starting quarterback Jared Taylor jogged off the field and, over the course of the next 20 minutes, received ever increasing levels of medical attention.

With the Eagles offense in the red zone and trailing 44-7, the game was temporarily halted and the entire Eagles team huddled around Taylor, who was ultimately taken to a hospital for what various team officials called “precautionary” reasons. The precise nature of his injury was unclear.

“Obviously it’s an unfortunate situation,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said. “Our hearts go out to him and his family. It looked like he was OK leaving the playing surface and for precautionary measures they took him in to take a look. We were with him. I am glad they stopped the game with a player on the sideline that was in that situation. Eastern (Washington) medical staff, Boise State medical staff, (they) did a great job.”

In the game itself, the Eagles were gashed for 328 yards and five touchdowns on 39 Boise State runs. Redshirt junior quarterback Maddux Madsen completed 16 of 26 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns, including a 60-yard connection with redshirt senior Ben Ford.

That score was part of a three-touchdown first quarter when the Broncos stormed out to a 20-0 lead (the first extra point was blocked).

Eastern got on the board next, on a 5-yard touchdown run by Taylor on a fourth-and-1 play midway through the second quarter. Taylor ran a team-high 17 times for 81 yards and completed 14 of 28 passes for 102 yards. He was sacked once.

But after that touchdown, the Broncos responded with a five-play, 80-yard drive capped by an 11-yard scrambling touchdown run from Madsen, who finished with 35 rushing yards.

One week after fumbling five times, the Broncos didn’t do so at all against the Eagles, and they gained 9.4 yards per play – almost double Incarnate Word’s average (5.4) against the Eagles last week in San Antonio.

“We didn’t knock any balls out. I think we played on our heels, missed a ton of tackles,” Best said. “We’ll have to look at film, but we didn’t play a very clean game defensively, and offensively it wasn’t complementary either.”

The Broncos added a 35-yard field goal in the final minute before halftime to take a 30-7 lead into the break, and then they scored the game’s next two touchdowns to bury the Eagles in a 44-7 deficit.

“We came up to play,” redshirt sophomore defensive end Tylin Jackson said. “I felt like guys were not scared. We came out and we were striking guys. I just don’t think we were as efficient in execution.”

After Taylor’s injury, redshirt sophomore Nate Bell took over and led the Eagles on a six-play, 80-yard drive that included a 49-yard pass to Noah Cronquist for the team’s longest play from scrimmage through two games this season. Bell scored on a two-yard run after the injury delay.

Overall, the Broncos (1-1) outgained the Eagles (0-2) in total offense 637-293, more than Eastern had allowed to an opponent since Montana put up 694 on Sept. 28 last season. It was just shy of the 666 the Eagles allowed at Florida in 2022, the last time they played a team as formidable as the Broncos.

“It’s not discouraging when we’re playing one of the best teams in the country,” said Ulm, who finished with three catches for 30 yards. “They just came off going to the College Football Playoff.”

Ulm didn’t intend that as an excuse, however.

“We just couldn’t keep drives going. (We lacked) execution on key downs. There were multiple times when guys just weren’t doing what they were supposed to do,” Ulm said. “(Our) execution on the offense was not where it needed to be.”

Eastern finished 6-for-18 on third downs, while Boise State converted on 7 of 13. Eastern punted eight times; Boise State punted just twice.

After returning home, Best said players will take the day off on Saturday, and then they’ll start preparing to face Northern Iowa next Saturday in Cedar Falls. The Eagles have only FCS opponents on their schedule from here, and from Boise State they will receive a payout of $360,000 for playing this game.

“The greatest thing about it is, we have next week,” Jackson said. “We can pop back, and guys can have another chance to get better. We didn’t execute this week, but we can have better execution next week.”