Best In The West: Week Seven

Best in the West is The Aggship's weekly Mountain West football round-up.

Colorado State 31, San Jose State 24

San Jose State started the season with a 3-0 record and a conference win. Fates change quickly in college football though, and San Jose State has felt that sting, dropping two of its last three games – including a costly conference loss to Colorado State, putting a damper on early conference title hopes.

Colorado State’s victory came as the Rams continued to figure themselves out and develop more weapons on offense. It's a good time for it, too, because star wideout Tory Horton went down with a season-ending knee injury in the first half and was largely held in check with seven receptions for 75 yards. Stepping up for Colorado State was Armani Winfield, who went for 108 yards and a touchdown on six catches. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi cleaned up his act and completed a season-high 73 percent of his passes for 269 yards (also a season-high) and a touchdown. Fowler-Nicolosi also rushed for 35 yards and a touchdown, but the rushing attack was led by Avery Morrow, who rushed 22 times for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Ken Niumatalolo, meanwhile, can't seem to pick a quarterback. Emmett Brown got the start and went 8-for-14 passing with 91 yards and a touchdown, but eventually ceded his spot to Walker Eget, who had another solid outing off the bench – he completed 22 of 30 passes and had 256 yards, though he did suffer an interception. Star wideout Nick Nash reeled in seven catches for 94 yards and a touchdown.

Colorado State squares off in an in-state clash with Air Force this week while San Jose State heads home to take on Wyoming.

Nevada 42, Oregon State 37

Another week, another chaotic fourth quarter for the Wolf Pack. This time they came out on top with a game-sealing interception to topple Oregon State, surpassing their win total for each of the past two years in the process and further confirming that Jeff Chaote has this program on the mend in year one.

Both teams scored a touchdown on their first possession, then things settled down and Oregon State led 24-21 after three, but both teams erupted in the fourth quarter. Nevada opened the frame with a pair of haymakers, a six-yard touchdown run from Savion Red and a 52-yard pick-six from Kitan Crawford, pushing the Wolf Pack to a 35-24 lead with 10 minutes to play. Oregon State responded with a touchdown but missed the two-point conversion, and couldn't turn a successful onside kick into points shortly after.

Nevada struck again as Brendon Lewis broke free for a 67-yard touchdown run to take a 42-30 lead. But, the Beavers weren’t going down easy. They responded with another touchdown and a defensive stand of their own, forcing a three-and-out to get the ball back with a minute to play and five points separating them from their hosts. The Beavers drove within striking distance and QB Gevani McCoy took a shot at the end zone on the game's final play, but was picked off by Michael Coats Jr. to secure the win for Nevada.

Lewis only had 51 passing yards on the evening, but the team combined for 353 yards on the ground and forced four turnovers to get the win, picking up a monster performance from Red (23 carries, 137 yards, four TDs). Playing back-to-back home games for the only time this season, Nevada is slated to host Fresno State this week.

Washington State 25, Fresno State 17

The game between the Bulldogs and Cougars had the makings of an offensive showcase, but it didn’t exactly pan out that way. Both quarterbacks were roughed up and neither team could dominate on the ground, leading to a slugfest that saw Wazzu eventually emerge victorious.

Turnover trouble again plagued Fresno State QB Mikey Keene, who has given away eight interceptions on the year, as he launched two on the game – the latter proving decisive in the fourth quarter as Ethan O’Connor ran it back 61 yards to put the Cougars on top 22-17. Washington State added a little insurance with a field goal on its next possession after stopping the Fresno State attack, and held strong again to keep the Bulldogs out of the end zone on the last possession of the contest.

Despite his interceptions, Keene threw for 220 yards and a touchdown, connecting chiefly with Mac Dalena (four receptions, 61 yards), Raylen Sharpe (six receptions, 60 yards) and Josiah Freeman (two receptions, 39 yards, one TD). Elijah Gilliam was the leading rusher and had 20 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown.

The Bulldogs are headed next to Reno and desperately need to get back on track, though they'll have to go through an improving Nevada team to do it.

Boise State 28, Hawaii 7

Boise State kept its perfect conference record intact and its playoff hopes alive, but it didn’t come as easy as the Broncos would have liked. Despite the substantial final score differential, Hawaii hung around for much of the game and the Broncos piled on late to finally get away from the Rainbow Warriors.

Boise State kicked a field goal and scored a touchdown in the first quarter, and used another field goal in the second to jump out to a 13-0 lead, but Brayden Schager hit Tylan Hines for a 27-yard touchdown on the ensuing Hawaii drive to make it 13-7. That’s when the Broncos got stuck. Despite Ashton Jeanty’s best efforts, they took that score into the half and punted away on their first possession of the second half, eventually leaving the third quarter with that same 13-7 halftime score.

Finally, a few minutes into the fourth quarter, Maddux Madsen completed a pass to Jeanty for a five-yard touchdown, capping a 91-yard drive that saw Jeanty account for 67 yards. The Broncos succeeded on a two-point conversion, forced a turnover on downs then scored again to finish off the scrappy Rainbow Warriors.

For the game, Jeanty rushed the ball 31 times for 217 yards and a touchdown, plus 20 receiving yards and a score on three catches. Cam Camper had his best game of the season with seven receptions and 111 yards. Madsen threw for 217 yards and two touchdowns. The Broncos have a bye week coming up, and they certainly will put it to good use as they have a bout with UNLV on the other side.

On the other side of the matchup, Schager threw for 264 yards and a touchdown, spreading the ball out to Nick Cenacle (seven catches, 59 yards), Alex Perry (six receptions, 57 yards), Pofele Ashlock (three receptions, 42 yards), Hines (one reception, 27 yards, one TD) and Landon Sims (one reception, 52 yards). Next up for Hawaii is a trip to Washington State.

New Mexico 52, Air Force 37

New Mexico has now scored 50 points in two games in a row, and not coincidentally, the Lobos are on a two-game winning streak. Led by dual-threat quarterback Devon Dampier, the Lobos offense has emerged as a real force recently, using their balanced attack to keep the Falcons at an arm's length on their way to a comfortable win.

Dampier had 14 completions on 19 attempts for 179 yards and a touchdown while adding 50 rushing yards and two more scores on 11 carries. Dampier found Nic Trujillo four times for 85 yards and a touchdown, and Luke Wysong five times for 53 yards. Eli Sanders, meanwhile, led the ground game with five carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns, with help from Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters (nine carries, 63 yards, one TD), Dampier, Javen Jacobs (six carries, 35 yards) and Naquari Rogers (six carries, 24 yards).

The Lobo defense isn’t as far along in the Bronco Mendenhall rebuild and allowed Air Force a season-high 37 points, though in true Falcon fashion, it wasn’t a pretty 37 points. The Air Force quarterbacks combined to complete just six passes for 149 yards and one touchdown – Quentin Hayes was 4-of-7 passing for 79 yards and Josh Johnson went 2 of 4 for 70 yards and a score. The Falcons did most of their damage on the ground, as usual, rushing for 325 yards behind solid efforts from Hayes (18 carries, 103 yards, one TD), Terrence Gist (13 carries, 54 yards), Johnson (four carries, 49 yards), Tylor Latham (eight carries, 36 yards, one TD) and Cade Harris (four carries, 22 yards, one TD), among others.

New Mexico is headed to Logan to play another team with a budding offense and a struggling defense this week, while Air Force will host Colorado State.

San Diego State 27, Wyoming 24

After a 1-3 start, San Diego State has now won two in a row to climb to 3-3 with a 2-0 record in the Mountain West. It took a fourth-quarter comeback to vault the Aztecs over the Cowboys, but freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil had enough in the tank to provide some big plays down the stretch.

After the Cowboys took a 24-17 lead with 14:50 left on the clock, O’Neil threw two incomplete passes, then locked in and connected with Jordan Napier on back-to-back explosive plays – a 53-yard strike and a 27-yard touchdown – to tie the game. On the next Aztec drive, a 41-yard pass to Nate Bennett helped set up a go-ahead field goal that gave San Diego State the edge.

O’Neil ended the night with 254 yards, one touchdown and an interception on a solid 16-of-27 passing performance. Opposite him, Evan Svoboda had 181 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, completing just 12 of 31 throws. Svoboda also carried the ball 14 times and picked up 55 yards with another score. Sam Scott picked up 94 yards and a TD on 20 carries for the Pokes, outdueling SDSU's Marquez Cooper (25 carries, 87 yards, one TD).

After a win over Air Force, Wyoming is back in the loss column and now 1-5 (1-1) on the year. The Aztecs have a week off to prepare to host Washington State while the Cowboys are on the road against San Jose State this week.