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Moore helps Boise State slam Louisiana Tech

Oct 2, 2008 - 5:06 AM BOISE, Idaho (Ticker) -- Boise State gave Louisiana Tech a bad case of the blue flu on Wednesday.

Kellen Moore threw for 325 yards on 20-of-28 passing with two touchdowns and one interception to lead the 18th-ranked Broncos to their 29th straight home victory on the blue carpet with a 38-3 triumph over the Bulldogs.

Moore, a redshirt freshman, completed passes to 10 different receivers for the Broncos (4-0, 1-0 WAC), who broke the game wide open in the third quarter with a field goal and three-yard touchdown run by D.J. Harper to gain a 31-3 advantage.

"There are so many dimensions in the passing game with wideouts, tight ends, and now we can add the running backs," Moore said. "We find ways for our offense to keep rolling."

The exclamation mark was another three-yard run by Harper, which was set up on a 51-yard screen pass from Moore to Ian Johnson. The score capped a 94-yard drive, which began after a goal-line stand by the Broncos' defense.

"When they get down there, they have to fight for every inch - and we didn't give them anything," Broncos linebacker Kyle Gingg said. "And that was huge."

Boise State dominated throughout, making Louisiana Tech quarterback Taylor Bennett suffer through an awful night. The transfer from Georgia Tech went 9-of-27 passing for 202 yards.

"They are very impressive," Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. "When our defense plays like that, it gives us a lot of confidence."

Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley praised his opponents.

"It wasn't anything special they were doing; it wasn't their looks, it was their guys," Dooley said. "They whooped us up front at the line of scrimmage and made it tough on us running the football. I knew coming in that if we struggled to run the ball, we would struggle to score.

"Give Boise State all the credit as they are very deserving of their ranking. They are a great football team."

The Broncos piled up 465 yards in wearing down Louisiana Tech.. Johnson, best known for his heroics in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl upset of Oklahoma, had only 27 yards on 10 carries but caught three balls for 106 yards.

Boise State grabbed a 7-0 lead when Moore found Julian Hawkins with a 13-yard strike to cap an 11-play, 82-yard drive in the first quarter.

The Broncos doubled the lead with a trick play. Moore handed off to Vinny Perretta, who faked a sweep before throwing back to Moore. The quarterback found Chris O'Neill downfield and it turned into a 44-yard touchdown pass.

After a field goal by Louisiana Tech (2-2, 0-1), Boise State built the lead to 21-3 with less that two minutes to go in the half on a 15-yard run by Titus Young.

"When you are playing a good football team, really any football team, and you make those mistakes on offense, it's tough," Dooley said. "We had a holding call after we converted a third down and got inside the five that hurt us. We had a couple of drops by guys who were wide open that killed drives. We had some mental errors. When you play teams like Boise and you make those types of mistakes, you get the result we got."