Maaco Bowl Las Vegas

Maaco Bowl Las Vegas

Saturday December 22^nd, 12:30 PST (20:30 GMT)

Sam Boyd Stadium, Whitney, Nevada

(19)Boise State Broncos vs. Washington Huskies

The Maaco Bowl Las Vegas has been played at 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney since 1992. Interestingly, the Stadium has a larger than the capacity of the stadium, as they say in Vegas “Go big or go home” Since 2001, the game has featured a matchup of teams from the Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences. Usually the MWC Champions and whatever crap the Pac-12 has to offer once they’ve filled their 200 other bowl spots. Wondering who the sponsors are? Well, MAACO Collision Repair & Auto Painting is an American franchisor of auto painting and collision repair shops based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. You’re welcome. Boise State has won this beauty of a Bowl both of the last two seasons, putting the hurt on the partyboy Arizona State Sun Devils last season. These two programs strangely enough will play each other in back-to-back games as the Broncos will open up the renovated Husky Stadium in the season opener on August 31^st, so whichever team loses out only has to wait 252 days for revenge or repeat.

Boise has moved to a transitionally offense with school legend Kellen Moore leaving for the NFL after last season, he recorded an FBS record 50 wins with the Broncos. Although on the face of it with their 10-2 record they have continued in a similar fashion, their offense has been based on running the ball. They average 173 yards on the ground and only 216.9 through the air compared to the 300+ in the past two seasons. Running back DJ Harper has been a big part of that, racking up over 1000 yards and 15 TDs shredding the MWC with their 7-1 conference record only spoiled by San Diego State, and judging by how horrific they were the other night against BYU, I think we can write that game off as the Broncos beat BYU in September while setting a new stadium record for attendance. Junior quarterback Joe Southwick has stepped into the Moore-shaped void and performed admirably, he’s completed for nearly 2500 yards with 17 TDs and 7 interceptions. He’s spread the ball around the field and although the Washington defense has improved this season, the Huskies were destroyed by RG3 and Baylor in the Alamo Bowl last season going down 67-56. The defense has been the real strength of the team this season only conceding 304 yards per game (9^th in the nation) recording 33 sacks, and 16 interceptions. The star of the defense is senior cornerback Jamar Taylor who has stepped up and contributed with 3 picks, 3 forced fumbles and 2.5 sacks, if he imposes himself on Kasen Williams; that could be a big part of Boise’s success

Washington sneaks into this bowl with a 7-5 record due to the Pac-12’s unworldly number of bowl slots with 7 automatic bids. With Oregon playing in the Fiesta Bowl, everybody below them moves up a spot, so the Huskies end up in this one. Their strength this season has been passing the football. Keith Price has spanked defenses for 2486 yards and 18 TDs and despite his game-losing interception and Washington’s collapse in this year’s Apple Cup game against Washington State, he has found his receivers with some regularity, wide receiver Kasen Williams has picked up 783 yards and 6 TDs while monster tight end and awesomely named Austin Sefarian-Jenkins has 791 yards for his 6 TDs. At 6’6” and 266lbs ASJ is tough to stop unless you’re a fan and although he’s only a sophomore, he looks destined to play on Sundays. He’s an odd mix for a tight end, with the speed to play on the outside and the brute strength and sheer physicality to bust tackles then run through linebackers over the middle. On the face of it, the Huskies record looks pretty poor, but when you factor in the strength of schedule they face in the Pac-12 and the fact they lost to LSU, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona before their disaster in rivalry week, they’re a pretty solid football team. This season they’ve played at the Seahawks’ Century Link Field as Husky Stadium is being rebuilt and much like their NFL counterparts, they are a young team (13 seniors on their roster) and they are rapidly improving with an exciting offensive game and speedy aggressive defense. This could be the start of something big in Seattle.

FOR BOISE STATE TO WIN

Somewhat counter intuitively, the Broncos need to use the pass to set up the run, they picked up 12 passing TDs in the first half and only 5 in the second half and have a 73.8% completion rate on first downs compared to 66.4% on second downs. They are notably deadly in the second quarter, piling up 144 points compared to just 130 in the entire second half. If the Washington defense starts to back off, that will allow Harper to continue his 5 yards per carry pace from the regular season and grind down Washington and complete the hat-trick of bowl wins. The defense will be solid as it has all season and linebacker JC Percy will continue to add to his 101 tackles this season but they need to shut down the monster that is ASJ to keep the Huskies quiet.

FOR WASHINGTON TO WIN

Create the mismatch that allows ASJ to make big gains and let running back Bishop Sankey do his thing, in the last four games of the regular season he rushed for 568 yards and 6 TDs, not too shabby considering he also picked up 144 yards against Stanford in a 17-13 win in week 4. Even more impressive when put into context, the Cardinals are ranked 3^rd in the country only giving up 87 yards per game rushing and Stanford only lost two games this season, the other team to beat them? Only a little college from South Bend playing for the National title in January. The defense remains key, especially the defensive line in countering the Boise State rushing game as that looks like a close battle. Washington’s pass defense is equally impressive; they’ve limited their opponents to fewer than 190 yards a game through the air, including 5 nationally ranked teams with a combined record of 48-12. The passing attack has to unlock the Broncos’ solid pass defense, ranked 4^th in the nation only surrendering 163 yards per game, but they haven’t faced too much opposition within a pretty poor conference, and Washington has racked up 210 yards per game in one of the toughest conferences in the college game (behind the SEC, well obviously) could be an entertaining coaching battle

VERDICT

This is the first big Bowl match-up for me this season despite the lowly stature of the Bowl; each team is going to walk away with $1.1m on Saturday afternoon. The key area of the game for me is Washington’s passing game against Boise State’s defense. The offense has stalled at times, but with the weapons available to Keith Price, they can sneak this one out. The game will be tight and tactical, hopefully better than the Broncos’ borefest against BYU, but the motivation for Washington to make up for their disaster against Washington State will fuel them in this one, the defense hits hard and Joe Southwick is nowhere near the player that Kellen Moore was leading Boise State to two consecutive bowl wins. Boise State may grind out the win, but I don’t think the offense is good enough to pull far enough clear of Washington to cover the spread

ADVICE

Washington +5.5

Under 44 points­