Western Michigan falls flat on big stage, gets outclassed by Boise State, 32-7
Western Michigan came out and got smoked out of the gate and never found a firm footing as Boise State rolled to a notable win.
Kalamazoo — An evidently emotional Lance Taylor got right to the point in his brief postgame remarks after Boise State bulldozed his Western Michigan squad, 32-7.
“Tough afternoon for the Broncos,” Taylor said to start his opening statement.
For his Broncos, it was.
Western Michigan (2-2) got thoroughly outclassed over 60 minutes on Saturday afternoon in front of 29,700 people at a packed Waldo Stadium, losing a game 32-7 on a national television stage with massive Group of 6 playoff implications. And more than anything, Taylor was not seeming as upset at result as he was the way his team had prepped well all week, then delivered a performance that gave Western Michigan no chance of winning.
And Taylor was not seeking to take away credit from Boise State (3-1), the other Broncos, who showed a dominant streak from the opening series and ran away with a lopsided win. He spoke highly of the way Boise State played, complimenting the visitors' depth of talent and the NFL upside of a few of the visiting players.
Taylor had called Saturday vs. Boise State a measuring stick game, a chance for the home Broncos to face off against a visiting team that has been the class of Group of 6 football for decades now.
“Based on the way we played and the way they whooped our ass, I would say we've got a couple of steps on the measuring stick,” Taylor said.
It’d be hard not to feel that way after Boise State’s performance.
The visitors out-possessed WMU 36:46 to 23:14, went 10-of-14 on 3rd downs as opposed to 2-of-11 for WMU, one of which was a penalty. Boise State rushed for 174 yards; WMU had 223 total yards.
More specifically, Boise State established early that it could push around Western Michigan in the ways the home team usually wants to push around the opposition. Boise State averaged 4.1 yards per carry, but at points in the early going it was upwards of seven yards a pop as running back Dylan Riley mashed against the WMU defense behind a solid offensive line.
Riley finished with 138 yards and a touchdown on a career-high 28 carries. Boise State’s QB, Maddux Madsen, a deft veteran, calmly filleted the WMU defense for 204 yards and three touchdowns while completing 70 percent of his passes.
“Sometimes it takes a good old ass whooping to really figure out who you are and where you need to go," Taylor said. "And as they say, that was a good old BTA.”
At no point did Western Michigan’s defense have a real answer, starting with the first drive. From Riley running through defensive backs to get extra yards, including thudding Daeh McCullough on the fourth play of the game to a busted coverage letting tight end Matt Wagner run wide open for a chunk play touchdown to end the first drive, it quickly unraveled.
“The way we prepared during the week gave me great confidence,” Taylor said. “Not whether we were gonna win or lose today, but that we would show up and play really well and give ourselves a chance to win. And I think that's the biggest thing: Didn't give ourselves a chance to win from the opening drive.”
Andrew Graham
And after prattfalling its way to a 25-point loss that was a shutout when the starters were involved on both sides, Taylor his hopeful his team can internalize a lot about Saturday — and how they approached it.
Taylor isn’t fearful that his team made the moment bigger than it was, but got caught up in it nonetheless.
Rather than being perfectly dialed in to all the fine points, approaching each play with a certain level of machine-like attachment, Taylor suspects his squad may have been too focused on an outcome, and now how to get there.
“In the big games and the big moments that we've played, even, you know, when we played Michigan, played in the MAC Championship — last year, we played Toledo, where it's, you know, it's for our season, our guys didn't treat the moment bigger than it was,” Taylor said. “And I think there was a little bit of emotional attachment to this game, knowing it was such a big game, knowing how much it meant to them and what we said our goals were at the beginning.”
Whatever attachment there might’ve been to what could’ve been on Saturday for Western Michigan is moot. The Broncos are 2-2.
But a lopsided non-conference loss with eight games left is far from being consigned to any sort of fate. Taylor is bullish on what can come next out of this game, and what it can mean for this Western Michigan team after they got pretty roundly thrashed.
“And so this is a good lesson for our team,” Taylor said. “We haven't really had this opportunity to grow. But for me, I'm thankful for how much these guys have grown our program. Were relevant. You know, our fans are excited about what we're doing, what we're building. I think people continue to see that we are elevating.
"And again, when you have a gut punch, it forces you to grow.”
