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And, heck, even Boise State's players and coaches have thought it. Can't senior quarterback Kellen Moore just throw the ball on every down. Dispense with the wide receiver reverses and the quarterback options and let the left-hander throw it and throw ...
TOLEDO, Ohio ? I know I?ve thought it. I?m sure Bronco Nation has thought it. And, heck, even Boise State?s players and coaches have thought it. Can?t senior quarterback Kellen Moore just throw the ball on every down.
"I might have said a couple things like that on the sideline," said Tyler Shoemaker, a senior whose five years in the program have been spent catching passes from Moore, including three touchdowns in Friday night?s 40-15 victory against Toledo.
Moore was in such a groove, particularly in the first half, that the entire Glass Bowl crowd of 28,905, along with the national television audience on ESPN, was thinking it, too.
Moore finished the game 32-of-42 for 455 yards and five touchdowns, a performance that enhanced his Heisman Trophy resume and left those who have been around the program grasping for superlatives.
"He always has a special day," said running back Doug Martin, another fifth-year senior who has spent his career in the same backfield as Moore.
With former Bronco wide receiver and current Detroit Lion Titus Young on the sideline in a heavy coat, Moore spread it around ? again. He completed passes to nine different receivers, with eight catching more than one ball, most of them so wide open enough that it appeared the Broncos were practicing and Moore was simply playing catch.
So, in the second quarter, when the Broncos called a option left on third-and-1 at the Toledo 27 and lost eight yards, it seemed foolish, especially since Moore had completed all three of his pass attempts on the drive.
When Dallas Burroughs took a second-quarter reverse and lost five yards, it was another head-scratcher, especially since Moore had completed all three of his previous pass attempts on the drive.
And when the Broncos tried a third-quarter fake field goal run by holder Joe Southwick rather than let Moore try to pick up a fourth-and-5 at the Toledo 34, it made little sense.
I know that?s the way Boise State plays, a freewheeling style that makes the Broncos enjoyable to watch. I know when those plays work, it?s genius and makes future opponents study extra film and sets up plays for later in the season.
I know this is not a video game ? or SMU or Houston ? and you can?t reasonably expect the Broncos to call No. 11?s number every single play, but it feels as if we?re being cheated every time Moore doesn?t throw a pass.
"I?m probably selfish sometimes. Yeah. I want to throw a little every play," Moore said in post-game interviews, which were largely about his mastery of the position and dissection of Toledo. "Those things were well designed. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don?t."
Moore always seems to work. (Here?s where I?conveniently forget his third-quarter interception, a poor pass into coverage.) Moore quipped Friday that he?d recently heard it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, a theory laid out by author Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers."
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