Too Much Smurf, Not Enough Turf

The 15th-ranked Boise State Broncos defeated Hawai'i on national television last night to improve to 6-0. They will also likely boost their ranking come Sunday evening, given the ranked-vs.-ranked games going on above them this week.

The first problem I have with this scenario is that I can't help but wonder how many people, like myself, didn't actually see them win their sixth game. Why didn't I see this happen, you ask? Well, it could be that I knew they were facing a Hawai'i team that lost a ton of offensive talent and their head coach in the offseason, so I wasn't expecting a close game.

Or, more likely, I turned on the television and saw that, for the third time this season, the Broncos were not just playing at home on their signature blue turf, but doing so in their blue helmets, blue jerseys, and blue pants. This caused me to change the channel and only occasionally see how the game was going, since excess exposure to all that blue may have burned my retinas permanently.

I appreciate the cleverness of the aptly nicknamed "Smurf Turf." It's neat to see, but when the home team isn't wearing home whites and therefore matches the turf, I personally do not enjoy spending the whole game having to focus, knowing that if I don't I'll lose track of who is where and that's the end of it.

However, that is merely a cosmetic issue with the Broncos moving up the rankings. The team played well, as QB Kellen Moore recovered from two first half fumbles to go 10 of 13 for 135 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. The defense in turn forced Hawai'i QB Inoke Funaki to throw four interceptions in only six second-half possessions, and the Broncos turned a meager 10-7 halftime lead into a 27-7 victory.

However, there's still the problem of being an undefeated team that hasn't really defeated anyone. The Broncos now have six wins, but they have only defeated one team with a winning record. On top of that, that one team with a winning record (Oregon) has earned their 5-2 record against teams that are a combined 6-24. So we have a relative paper tiger whose only significant win really isn't, because it's against another team of the same caliber.

Article Author: Geeves

Geeves is mainly a critic of the sports and entertainment arena, recently shifting his time and resources away from his own middling blogs and into the Blogcritics realm at something resembling full time.

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