The first week of Mountain West play is in the books and the Mountain West with the rare conference game between Colorado State and New Mexico and then the rest of the league took part in non-conference games and went a combined 4-2.
• No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers 52, UNLV Rebels 10: The result was never in question as UNLV was a considerable underdog. The Wisconsin offense moved the ball at will as the UNLV defense had no answer against the run or passing game. The bright spot for UNLV was that they were fairly successful moving the ball but were just unable to do so when they were in Wisconsin territory. Also, first time starter Caleb Herring had two touchdowns pass and no interceptions, so there is that.
• Baylor Bears 50, TCU Horned Frogs 48: The shocker of the weekend. We knew TCU's defense was to take a step back, but 50 points was not expected. That 50 points was the most given up by a TCU defense since they gave up 70 points to Texas Tech in 2004. Baylor was able to beat the TCU corners at will and quarterback Robert Griffin III torched the TCU secondary for 358 yards and five touchdowns. TCU did make a valiant attempt by scoring 25 fourth quarter points but it was too little too late. The offense looked good with Casey Pachall taking over for Andy Dalton who had 251 yards, four touchdowns and one pick; plus he ran for 28 yards and another touchdown.
• Air Force Falcons 37, South Dakota Coyotes 20: A ho-hum victory for Air Force as they did what they were expected to do. They ran out to a 30 to 7 lead at the half before allowing South Dakota to score a few garbage time touchdowns. The surprise of the game was the emergence of wide receiver Mikel Hunter who rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown which was an 80 yard run on the first play from scrimmage and caught one pass for 55 yards and a touchdown.
• Colorado St. Rams 14, New Mexico Lobos 10: Even though New Mexico loss they seem to have turned a corner and have a potential star in the making in sophomore quarterback Tarean Austin who threw for 179 yards, one touchdown and rushed for another 57 yards on the ground. Austin plays reckless but he was able to extend plays, but he was not able to defeat Colorado State by himself. The player of the game was Colorado State defensive lineman Nordly Capi who sealed the win for Colorado State by forcing and recovering a fumble with less than 15 seconds left. On the day Capi had six tackles, 4.5 were for a loss, four forced fumbles while recovering one and 3.5 sacks.
• No. 5 Boise St. Broncos 35, No. 19 Georgia Bulldogs 21: The Boise State offensive and defensive line was the reason Boise State won this game. There is a reason that quarterback Kellen Moore was a Heisman trophy finalist last year. The Broncos were breaking in new receivers and were without a starter, but that did not matter as Moore went 28-34, 261 yards, three touchdowns and only one pick. Once Boise State went ahead 14-7 the game never seemed to be in doubt for Boise State.
• Wyoming Cowboys 35, Weber State Wildcats 32: This was a back and forth game as Wyoming had to come from behind to defeat Weber State. Wyoming was starting true freshman quarterback Brett Smith who went 21-34, 278 yards, three passing touchdowns and one rushing score. The most important score came on the game winning drive where Smith connected on a 9-yard TD pass on fourth down to sophomore receiver Robert Herron with 35 seconds left for the win.
• San Diego St. Aztecs 49, Cal Poly Mustangs 21: Another FBS vs. FCS game this week in the Mountain West and San Diego State took care of business. San Diego State quarterback threw four touchdowns passes and in the process became the Aztecs all time leader in touchdown passes. Running back Ronnie Hillman exploded for 189 yards on the ground and also contributed with two touchdowns in the blowout win.
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