By GIL LeBRETON
glebreton@star-telegram.com
RUSTON, La. — As the seconds ticked down here Friday night, a bearded heckler in a Louisiana Tech T-shirt decided to stand and give his candid assessment of the well-hyped visitors.
"O-ver-rated! O-ver-rated!" the guy began to chant.
By that point, however, the Boise State Broncos seemed to just want to get it over with — the game, the final two quarters, the four times they got the ball into the red zone and couldn’t score a touchdown, and the 2,000-mile trip back to Idaho.
Coach Chris Petersen had told his team to prepare "for a dogfight," and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs had delivered as promised.
But for a team campaigning to be considered one of the best teams in college football, the Broncos’ argument had come across a tad weak.
For one thing, this was Louisiana Tech — not down-state power Louisiana State — that the Broncos had to hang on to defeat 45-35.
This was a Tech team that was missing six injured players from its two-deep lineup, with six others playing with injuries.
And it was a Tech team that Boise jumped on 27-7 in the game’s first 23 minutes, only to see the Broncos having to cling to a thin 30-28 lead as the final quarter began.
The night was chilly, and from the press box at Joe Aillet Stadium, you could see a long line of red tail lights from the cars that left at halftime.
The undefeated Broncos had dominated the first half with defense and with quarterback Kellen Moore spreading the ball around among his covey of athletic receivers.
The only hint of Boise’s trouble to come was its running game — 29 yards in the first half on 16 carries.
Between the tackles, where Louisiana Tech still had its healthy first-teamers, the game was even. It was Boise’s outside speed and the Bulldogs’ inexperience in the secondary that had made the first-half difference.
On Boise State’s fifth snap of the second half, however, the game — and maybe the Broncos’ postseason plans? — changed in a blink.
The left-handed Moore, confronted with a sudden pass rush, tried to fling the ball away, over the head of teammate Tyler Shoemaker along the left sideline. The throw fell tellingly short, and Tech cornerback Josh Victorian intercepted it in stride and dashed 75 yards to a touchdown.
"That’s just my fault, trying to get the ball out of bounds and I didn’t get it there," Moore said. "It’s just a stupid thing that shouldn’t have happened."
The throw was only Moore’s third interception of the season. He has thrown for 15 touchdowns.
A rejuvenated Tech team fought the No. 5-ranked Broncos on mostly even terms the rest of the way.
"When you have a big turnover that changes momentum, that really hurts," Petersen said. "It was a ball that should not have been thrown. Hey, Kellen is human, too. That’s the bottom line."
Tech outscored Boise State 28-18 in the second half. The Broncos’ Jeremy Avery finally put the issue to rest with a tackle-breaking 44-yard run with under five minutes to play.
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