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TCU ends Boise State's perfect season

Dec 24, 2008 - 6:38 AM FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- Boise State led the Poinsettia Bowl 13-0 on Tuesday. TCU, however, wasn't about to allow Boise State to finish its season with a 13-0 record.

The 11th-ranked Horned Frogs rallied for a 17-16 victory over the ninth-ranked Broncos in the Poinsettia Bowl, leaving Boise State one point short of a perfect season.

"First off, you have to give Boise a lot of credit. They have a good football team," TCU coach Gary Patterson said.

"They were 12-0 coming into this game with a redshirt freshman quarterback, which is hard to do. They play great defense and they played great defense tonight. I felt like, when we got down 13-0, and it probably could have been 21-0, but we held them out of the end zone and fought back and scored before the half."

The loss prevented the Broncos (12-1) and running back Ian Johnson from repeating their charmed 43-42 victory in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl over Oklahoma. The magic on this evening came from TCU, which overcame a deficit with a dominant final three quarters.

Joseph Turner scored on a 17-yard run to give TCU (11-2) a 17-13 lead in the fourth quarter. This marked the first time Boise State trailed after halftime. The score capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive.

Boise State countered with a scoring drive of its own as Kyle Brotzman kicked a 33-yard field goal to draw the Broncos within 17-16. Vinny Perretta nearly took a pass from Kellen Moore to the end zone but he was nudged out of bounds at the 22 and the Broncos eventually had to settle for Brotzman's third field goal of the game with 4:47 left.

The Horned Frogs devoured nearly three minutes before punting the ball to Boise State with 1:53 left. The Broncos took over at the 17 and Moore was picked off by senior safety Stephen Hodge on the first play after the punt.

"I did want to end (it) like this," Hodge said. "My brother was talking to me all week that this could be my biggest game. It was the first interception of my career."

The Horned Frogs were dominant on offense, piling up 475 yards compared to 242 for the Broncos.

TCU quarterback Andy Dalton was 22-of-35 passing for 197 yards and added 74 yards rushing on 16 carries. Aaron Brown had 105 yards rushing on 13 carries and Turner added 79 yards on the ground on 15 carries.

"We were executing in the first half," Dalton said. "We knew we could overcome those (turnovers). We were down 13-7 at halftime and we were still in the game. We just had to keep doing what we were doing in the first half."

For Boise State, Moore was 20-of-33 passing for 213 yards and the interception. In his final game, Johnson rushed for 32 yards on eight carries.

Johnson's 20-yd TD run in the first quarter marked the 58th rushing TD of his career and moved him into first place in the WAC career record book. He entered the game with 57, in a tie with San Diego State great Marshall Faulk.

TCU crawled within 13-10 in the final minute of the third quarter as Ross Evans kicked a 32-yard field goal to cap a 64-yard drive.

The Horned Frogs had cut the gap to 13-7 while outgaining the Broncos 188-minus-7 in the second quarter.

"I told them at halftime the biggest thing about it was we really hadn't had much go right for us except that last drive," Patterson said.

"We had a couple of turnovers. If we can come out and play in the red-zone offensively, and come out defensively, we're going to have to make some more stops, we would have a chance.

"The kids kept fighting. I don't think you can say that much more. I probably get all the credit but the bottom line is that the kids never gave up and kept on playing."

Brown scored on a 16-yard touchdown run with 24 seconds left in the half to cap a 60-yard drive that gave the Horned Frogs life.

Johnson's scoring run in the first quarter was sandwiched by two Brotzman field goals to give the Broncos a 13-0 lead with less than six minutes left in the second quarter.

"We had a nice season, no question about it," Boise coach Chris Petersen said. "We lost to a heck of a football team. We had our chances and didn't make the most of them.

"We're going to learn from this game. There will be some good things for us to learn from. We'll get rested up until after Christmas and then thank the seniors for all they did for us."