Tulsa Report Card Against Boise State

Bobby Lewis breaks down Tulsa's performance in Boise.

Monday, September 26th 2011, 1:10 am

By: News 9


Bobby Lewis, NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – Even though he was hurt, G.J. Kinne started at quarterback for Tulsa against Boise State. He has the heart of a warrior and wanted to play in this game very badly. He said before the year started that the Broncos game was the one he didn't want to miss no matter what.

Unfortunately, he was ineffective much of the night because of that knee. At least, it appeared that the knee was the reason. Tulsa lost 41-21 and looked awful for much of the night on both sides of the ball in doing so.

OFFENSE: D+

Tulsa only made it past midfield four times all game. Three of those came in the second half and all of those resulted in scores. The team failed to cross midfield on nine drives and was not able to generate anything on offense until late in the game. They ended the first half with 90 yards of total offense.

The Golden Hurricane has turned the ball over ten times in the past two games. Kinne threw three interceptions in the team's first 18 plays. That prohibits you from winning any games. TU was held to just 21 points. All of them came in the second half when the game was already out of reach.

One positive from the game was backup quarterback Kalen Henderson. He led a nice touchdown drive in his only action of the night. He hit Ricky Johnson on a beautiful throw for Tulsa's third score. It was an 8-play, 59 yard drive for the score. That was impressive by the freshman on the road.

DEFENSE: F

The score could have been much worse. Boise State fumbled at the Tulsa 1-yard line on its first possession of the night and missed a few deep passes that could have gone for scores. They blew the Golden Hurricane away with the passing game. Kellen Moore showed why he is a top-tier NFL prospect. He threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns.

The secondary looked like Swiss cheese out there. There were holes everywhere. Tulsa did a much better job slowing down Landry Jones and Brandon Weeden than it did against Moore. He repeatedly hit floaters over the safeties, threw darts between the coverage and threw perfect deep balls to his wide open receivers. He came out before the third quarter ended. Had he played the entire game, the numbers would be even uglier.

The Broncos didn't need much on the ground. They rolled up 458 yards of total offense on Tulsa and controlled the clock as well. Boise State ran 51 first half plays and 36 of them were on TU's end of the field. Boise State did give up a sack for the first time all season.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

Freshman Freeman Kelley shined in the kick return game. He returned a kickoff 37-yards. Punter Cole Way continued his great start to his career. His streak of 20 straight punts with no return came to an end, but was still able to average nearly 40 yards per kick. Tulsa blocked Boise's first extra point attempt of the night, as well.

OVERALL: D

Tulsa's month-long gauntlet is over. They finish September with a 1-3 record. They lost all three of their games against the Top-10 ranked teams. Their only win was, perhaps, the most important game of the first month. They beat Tulane and are sitting pretty in the conference standings.

Now, they return home to face North Texas. This game looked like a cake walk before the season began, but the way things have gone injury-wise with Tulsa lately, a ‘W' over the Mean Green isn't a given. North Texas picked up its first win of the season Saturday night by beating Indiana 24-21. Lance Dunbar gained 279 all-purpose yards in the win.

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