San Jose State vs. Boise State Spread

Written by Jason Lowry

This Friday first place in the WAC Conference will be up fro grabs when San Jose State Spartans(5-2, 3-0) host the No. 13 ranked Boise State Broncos (6-0,2-0). This marks the second straight week that Boise State sees action on a Friday night, and last week they had no trouble taking care of business against Hawaii, as they took home a 27-7 win. As for the Spartans they continued to roll through WAC opponents, as they beat up on New Mexico State last week 31-14. There is no surprise the oddsmakers are going with the ranked team, as Boise State comes in 7.5 point favorites over San Jose State.

This game marks the first of 4 away games the Broncos will face in their final 6 games of the regular season, and this one along with the game at Nevada later on will be the two toughest games the Broncos have left. Last week the Broncos did like normal and rode the arm of quarterback Kellen Moore, as he threw for 256 yards and 3 scores. The Broncos didn’t have great success on the ground, as a number of Broncos combined to run the ball 31 times for just 111 yards and no scores. While it looks like the Broncos offense is steps ahead of the Spartans defense, but the San Jose State defense has been playing pretty well of late.

Minus the minor hiccup at Oregon earlier this season, the Broncos defense has been lights out, as its completely shutdown every other team its faced this season. Last week the Broncos really made life tough for Hawaii quarterback Inoke Funaki, as they forced him to throw 5 interceptions, with 3 of them going to corner Brandyn Thompson. The run defense was pretty solid as well holding the Warriors to right around 60 yards on the ground. Look for the Broncos to make life rough for the Spartans this week, but it might not be so easy away from their famous blue turf.

After struggling in their non-conference schedule San Jose State has really turned it on on both sides of the ball. The Spartans are scoring 27 points a game in the WAC play, and last week the defense was the key to the win, a week earlier it was the arm of Kyle Reed who threw for 300 yards and 3 scores. Though Reed was good a couple weeks ago against Utah State, he was pretty much the opposite in their last game against New Mexico State, as he threw for just 50 yards and had 3 interceptions. The Spartans did run the football well, as Yonus Davis and Brandon Rutley ran for 157 yards and 2 scores combined. Either way if the Spartans want to pull off the upset they are going to have to keep from turning the ball over like they did last week.

The Spartans defense was the big reason they were able to get by New Mexico State, and the reason for that is they got 14 points off interceptions for touchdowns from Duke Ihenacho and Chris Williams. This was the second straight game Ihenacho returned an interception for a touchdown, and if he is able to do that again this week, it could go a long way in the Spartans chances of winning. Its likely the Spartans will try and make the Broncos beat them through the air, but that could wind up playing right into the hands of Boise State.

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