BOISE — Not many could have seen this coming.

Boos raining down from the Albertsons Stadium crowd. Fans heading for the exits early in the fourth quarter. The worst home loss since 2001.

So much for entering the bye week with some momentum.

In one of their ugliest losses in recent memory, the Boise State football team was handed a stunning 42-23 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers on Friday night at Albertsons Stadium.

The loss was Boise State’s worst at home in more than 16 years. The Broncos hadn’t suffered a defeat like this in front of the home crowd since a 41-20 loss to Washington State on Sept. 8, 2001.

“Disappointing to say the least,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “Bottom line, that’s on me. We have to be ready to go out there and play. Virginia is a good football team and we knew that. We didn’t underestimate those guys.

“I don’t think that’s what this team is about. That’s not what this team is made of. We have to improve. … We have a long ways to go and a lot to learn.”

Several two-word phrases could be used to quickly sum up what happened Friday night in front of a season-high crowd of 33,947. Dropped passes, costly penalties and blown coverages come to mind.

But arguably Boise State’s biggest problem Friday was one that’s haunted them all season: A nonexistent running game. After talking all week about the need to improve a struggling ground game, Boise State had 24 carries for just 30 yards.

Robert Mahone, who Harsin said deserved to play more than the two carries he got against New Mexico, had three consecutive carries early in the second quarter that resulted in 21 yards. He didn’t get another carry the rest of the game.

The Broncos would have finished with the fifth-worst rushing total in school history if not for two late scrambles in mop-up time by backup quarterback Montell Cozart.

“That’s not good enough,” Harsin said. “You have to be able to run the ball. You have to be balanced, you have to be able to create some explosive plays in the run game and that just hasn’t happened.

“We did nothing in the run game.”

Virginia had lost 20 of its past 21 road games before dominating the Broncos on the once-feared blue turf.

Loud boos rained down on the Broncos from the Albertsons Stadium crowd throughout the second half. The loudest may have come late in the third quarter, when the Broncos used a timeout only to get an eventual delay of game penalty after unsuccessfully trying to draw Virginia offsides.

Boise State had at least three costly penalties on kick or punt returns that ruined what would have been good starting field position. They were whistled for nine penalties for 64 yards compared to three penalties on Virginia.

On offense, the Broncos went 4 of 16 on third down, 1 of 4 on fourth down and committed the only turnover in the game. They also were sacked four times.

Defensively, the Broncos gave up four touchdowns of at least 27 yards and two of more than 50 yards. Boise State’s defense struggled to slow Virginia in all areas, allowing 273 yards passing and 167 yards rushing.

“Bottom line, that was a poor performance overall and every guy in that locker room would say that, and that starts with me,” Harsin said. “Playing at home and playing that poorly, that’s a tough one. That’s tough. Bottom line is there’s no accepting losing. There’s no accepting the performance we had today.

“What can we do about it? Nothing at this point, but we can go back and learn from it and as long as guys look at it and learn from it and we do the work we need to do on a day to day basis…we’ll find out what were made of.”

Quarterback Brett Rypien returned for Boise State and completed 24 of 42 passes for 285 yards. Wide receiver Cedrick Wilson had 13 catches for 209 yards and a touchdown, while A.J. Richardson had five catches for 80 yards.

Leighton Vander Esch had 10 tackles for the Broncos on defense and DeAndre Pierce added nine.

But that’s about it for the positive stats on a night the Broncos would love to soon forget.

Maybe the only positive from Friday’s result was that it had zero impact on Boise State’s goal of winning a Mountain West Conference title. The Broncos are 1-0 in conference play but fell to 1-2 in nonconference play with the loss to ACC foe Virginia.

Boise State was a muffed punt and a 21-point fourth quarter collapse at Washington State away from entering Friday’s game with a 3-0 record and likely a top-20 ranking. Instead, the Broncos fell to 2-2 with tough back-to-back road games at BYU and San Diego State coming up after the bye.

The Broncos are 5-5 in their last 10 games dating back to last season. To put that in perspective, they lost five total games from 2008-2012.

“It’s demoralizing,” Boise State defensive end Durrant Miles said. “But I think it gives us something to fuel the fire with. … It’s something going into this bye week that is going to be great fuel to the fire. I know the boys in there are ready to go to work and put their nose down and grind. That’s all we can do at this point.”