EUGENE, ORE. — Once again, the Boise State football team came into the fourth quarter at Autzen Stadium with a chance to win the game.
The Broncos were going score-for-score with Oregon, the No. 2 team in the country. They were tied at 24. The players were dancing to ‘Shout,’ the song the Ducks play in their stadium every game before the start of the fourth quarter. The sideline was loose.
But good vibes don’t always results in wins.
In the end, Boise State was not able to keep up with the Ducks in a track race, and Oregon left the season opener for both teams with a 34-27 win on Saturday.
“We got over 100 players on our team who really believe we can go beat the No. 2 team in the country, or fill in the blank, whoever you play,” said Boise State coach Spencer Danielson. “Tonight, we didn’t get it done, but hopefully there’s a stiffening of our spine knowing you can go play anyone and beat anyone. If we don’t play our best, we can lose to anyone, too, let’s not get that twisted. But we learned a lot about our team, they’re going to battle. They’re not going to shy away, we got to continue to focus and pour it on.”
Boise State (0-1) certainly had opportunities to win. The Ducks’ 10 penalties for 90 yards often extended drives for the Broncos. Twice in the first half, Boise State made fourth down stops to get the ball back at midfield. And while two Oregon special team touchdowns did in the Broncos in a 37-34 loss to Oregon in 2024, this time a fumble recovery on a punt set up a Boise State touchdown in the second quarter.
But when a fourth down pass by Maddux Madsen fell incomplete with less than two minutes to go, time ran out on Boise State.
“If you were to ask me about this game, I hate it,” Madsen said. “I hate losing games, I don’t play football to lose, I want to win. But there’s a lot of things we’re going to learn from and grow from, which gives me a positive outlook going forward in the season.”
Madsen finished with 181 on 15 of 29 passing and three touchdown passes. He found Cam Bates wide open in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass on the game’s opening drive, he connected with Sire Gaines for a 38-yard touchdown on a screen pass in the second quarter and he hit Matt Wagner for a 7-yard touchdown pass in the end zone on fourth down in the third quarter. Madsen also had two runs that resulted in first downs — one on a third down, another on a fourth — and even had a six-yard reception on his own pass. On his second pass of the game, Maddux had the ball batted back into his own hands and ran ahead for six yards.
“I thought Maddux did a really good job,” Danielson said. “Whenever you lose a football game, it hurts and it’s painful. But Maddux did some really good things and that’s our guy. We talk about it all the time, your best is enough, your best is required, and Maddux did some really good things.”
Unfortunately for the Broncos, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore did some really good things, as well. Moore passed for 383 yards as the Ducks offense hurt the Broncos with explosive plays all game. The last one came with 7:51 left in the game when he completed a pass to Dakorien Moore, no relation, who juked around two Bronco defenders and scored on a 62-yard reception.
That gave the Ducks the lead for good.
“That’s something we got to work on, eliminating the explosive,” said linebacker Boen Phelps, who had eight tackles for the Broncos. “That’s what wins these big games. They definitely hurt as a defense.”
While the Broncos are far from calling this a moral victory, they know they can take something away from playing such a highly ranked team to the wire. In 2024, when Oregon won on a game-winning field goal, the Broncos were able to win the next 10 games and make it to their first ever College Football Playoff.
Boise State can have the opportunity to do that again with a tough schedule ahead of them. They return to Albertsons Stadium next week for their home opener against Memphis, a team with CFP aspirations of their own.
“This Boise State Bronco team is going to battle to the end with anybody,” Madsen said. “That’s the best part about it. And that’s going to carry us a long way, which I’m stoked for. It’s weird to think we got a game next week, because the last 300 days has been Oregon. Our whole focus has been beating Oregon. So now we’ve just got to keep fighting. It’s a long season, that’s the best part about it. We’ll have an opportunity next week to go out and do what we need to do, which is awesome.”