An instant classic or a thriller it was not. But the Fiesta Bowl had just enough action to keep folks awake till Boise coach Chris Peterson dug deep into his bag of tricks to convert a 4th and 9 deep into their own territory and go on to win 17-10.
The game had been consistently scratchy and outright disastrous if you were a Horned Frog (!) as it began on a pick 6 by Andy Dalton, their uber-reliable QB. They were looking to go down 10-0 at the half and perhaps also without Dalton as he was at the receiving end of a vicious hit on a CB blitz from the blind side which he absolutely did not pick up. He would return before the half closed and on the last drive of the first half, he was able to connect with Curtis Clay for a 30 yard TD toss. Even though it seemed like Boise had dominated at the half (relatively), TCU was down by just 3 and had the momentum swing their way.
Boise came out of the half and got the ball only to go 3 and out. Teams exchanged punts and on their next possession, TCU was able to move the ball into FG range after a forced fumble by Boise and tie the game up.
With 12 min to go in the second half and neither team able to move the ball within scoring range, Chris Peterson decided to go for the fake punt on their own 33 yard line and caught TCU totally off guard. While much will be made of this play, it should be noted that TCU still could have stopped Boise as they had done so successfully many times. Even after the fake punt, they still allowed Boise to march down 60 yards and score. And as if to make a point, the score came on a 2 yard rush by Boise RB Martin. Ironic - as in the last encounter between the two times in the Poinsettia Bowl, Boise had rushed for a total of 28 yards and TCU had rushed for over 200 yards. This time they held TCU to 36 yards rushing off of 20 carries and forced Andy Dalton to beat em and he responded with 3 INTs.
So Boise matches the Buckeyes feat of going 14-0 and we reluctantly congratulate em for it. Reluctantly, as the quality of the Buckeyes 14 wins in 2002 was way greater than the quality of Boise's wins but for them its still a 14-0 year.
Its good that both the WAC and the MWC earned good money out of this BCS game. But if they were hoping that the game would further enhance their reputation as power conferences, they failed miserably There is enough statistical fodder for analysts to chew on and conclude that all the flashy numbers put up by both teams was due to weak level of competition.
