I have just finished reviewing our postseason history, and was quite shocked to realize that we haven't won a playoff game since the 2006 season. That year we went to the Conference Championship game but lost to Honolulu. Since that time we've been one-and-done in 2007 (21-10 Wild Card round loss to Denver), 2008 (17-13 Wild Card round loss to Sacramento), and 2009 (17-16 Divisional Round loss to Denver). In five trips to the playoffs our cumulative playoff record is an embarrassing 3-5, and of the top seven teams in the league by career records we're the only one to have somehow missed out on going to a CFL Bowl.
In other words, we choke come playoff time.
We're hoping this year will be different, because this time we've got the surprisingly effective Kent Goodwin manning the helm - our prior playoff history was all under the leadership of "Colonel" Hogan, whose butt is now firmly attached to our bench. We're thus mildly optimistic about today's game, but with Lin coming to town we cannot get
overly optimistic.
We're fairly healthy heading into today's game, with Holliday upgraded to probable and our only missing starter being RT Matthew Pitman. We're ready to go.
Code:
Box Score: Boise at Tucson
Tucson, AZ.
Conference Semifinals, 2011
Attendance: 68,400 (69,800).
Weather: 60 degrees, fair.
1Q: 13:55 TUC - Corwin Jeffries 17 pass from Kent Goodwin.
1Q: 13:55 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
1Q: 11:35 TUC - Sydney Armitage 4 pass from Kent Goodwin.
1Q: 11:35 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
1Q: 05:03 TUC - Jake Emerson 7 pass from Kent Goodwin.
1Q: 05:03 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point failed.
1Q: 01:56 BOI - Conrad Fisher 42 field goal.
2Q: 07:48 BOI - Austin Philyaw 2 run.
2Q: 07:48 BOI - Conrad Fisher extra point.
2Q: 00:26 BOI - Conrad Fisher 53 field goal.
3Q: 08:12 BOI - Conrad Fisher 22 field goal.
3Q: 00:35 BOI - Conrad Fisher 32 field goal.
4Q: 00:54 TUC - Buster Trujillo 40 interception return.
4Q: 00:54 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
4Q: 00:05 TUC - Sydney Armitage 17 pass from Kent Goodwin.
4Q: 00:05 TUC - Hugo Eckard extra point.
Game MVP: TUC 19 Kent Goodwin
Boise 3 10 6 0 - 19
Tucson 20 0 0 14 - 34
Team Statistics BOI TUC
First Downs 19 16
Total Rushes 29 25
Rushing Yards 107 98
Yards Per Carry 3.6 3.9
Pass Attempts 47 41
Completions 16 14
Passing Yards 241 183
Yards Per Attempt 5.1 4.4
Sacked 2 0
Yards Lost 10 0
Interceptions 4 2
Fumbles/Lost 2/0 1/1
Total Plays 78 66
Total Yards 338 281
Yards Per Play 4.3 4.2
3rd Down Plays 4/18 3/15
Avg. YTG on 3rd 9.5 8.8
4th Down Plays 0/1 0/0
Penalties 6 13
Penalty Yards 50 116
Avg. Drive Start OWN 33 OWN 32
Time Of Possession 33:35 26:25
Boise Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
45 Philyaw 20 55 2.7 15 1
19 Lin 8 53 6.6 13 0
24 Givens 1 -1 -1.0 -1 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
19 Lin 47 16 241 5.1 45 0 4 2
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
89 Muncy 4 50 12.5 5 22 0
82 Pritchett 4 64 16.0 4 33 0
85 Vankirk 2 27 13.5 0 16 0
45 Philyaw 2 14 7.0 16 9 0
87 Albright 2 61 30.5 0 45 0
88 Colton 1 16 16.0 0 16 0
80 Barney 1 9 9.0 2 9 0
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
82 Pritchett 5 16 3.2 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
36 Blackwell 1 41 41.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
13 Poole 7 264 37.7 57 4
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
4 Fisher 4 5 53 1 1
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
55 Rausch 10 3 0.0 1 32 0
28 Spry 7 0 0.0 0 0 0
20 Gott 4 0 0.0 0 0 0
59 Otte 3 4 0.0 0 0 0
34 Farmer 2 2 0.0 0 0 0
92 Snodgrass 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
99 Asher 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
82 Pritchett 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
41 Nunez 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
43 Hulse 1 0 0.0 1 0 0
54 Bergmann 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
94 Phelan 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
23 Gallego 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
19 Lin 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
96 Jobe 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
35 Washington 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
88 Colton 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
91 Leaf 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
74 Gomez 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
97 Ranek 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
38 Richmond 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
70 Sims 0 0 1 0 0 2
99 Asher 0 1 1 0 0 0
62 Kenderdine 0 0 1 0 1 0
45 Philyaw 2 0 0 0 0 0
54 Bergmann 0 0 0 0 1 0
84 Palmer 0 0 0 0 1 0
Tucson Individual Statistics
Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
42 Holliday 18 55 3.0 14 0
19 Goodwin 4 26 6.5 15 0
26 Jeffries 3 17 5.6 10 0
Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
19 Goodwin 41 14 183 4.4 23 4 2 0
Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
89 Armitage 6 78 13.0 2 23 2
80 Higginbotham 2 34 17.0 6 23 0
85 Garcia 2 28 14.0 0 16 0
42 Holliday 1 9 9.0 9 9 0
26 Jeffries 1 17 17.0 17 17 1
82 Torres 1 10 10.0 10 10 0
87 Emerson 1 7 7.0 0 7 1
Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
42 Holliday 2 2 1.0 0
Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
35 Giles 5 119 23.8 0
81 Hodges 1 16 16.0 0
Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
15 Winters 11 483 43.9 60 6
Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
12 Eckard 0 0 0 4 5
Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
31 Enoch 11 1 0.0 1 3 0
55 Trujillo 7 1 0.5 1 40 1
40 Biggs 6 4 0.0 0 0 0
25 Minahan 3 1 0.5 0 0 0
95 Stoltzfus 3 2 0.0 0 0 0
52 Wash 3 0 0.0 1 6 0
75 Grier 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
70 Neubauer 3 0 0.0 0 0 0
35 Giles 2 2 0.0 0 0 0
90 Jarrard 2 0 0.0 0 0 0
97 Horn 1 0 1.0 0 0 0
45 Stine 1 1 0.0 1 0 0
27 Ellsworth 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
89 Armitage 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
82 Torres 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
84 Joyner 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
64 Connell 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
81 Hodges 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
54 Reeves 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
34 McGarrity 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
72 Bernard 0 2 0.0 0 0 0
93 King 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
54 Reeves 0 0 0 0 3 0
55 Trujillo 0 1 0 0 0 0
52 Wash 0 1 0 0 0 0
71 Franck 0 0 0 0 1 0
26 Jeffries 1 0 0 0 0 0
64 Connell 0 0 0 0 1 0
60 Poplawski 0 0 0 0 1 0
Hoo boy, that was one ugly game. Either both offenses were terrible, both defenses were great, or some combination thereof. The high score doesn't really reflect just how crappy this game was - for example, the two teams combined to convert just 7 of 33 3rd downs. There were seven total turnovers, and Your Beloved Toros were incredibly penalty-prone. Despite the general ineptitude of our team (14 of 41 from Goodwin?!), we were able to sneak away with our first playoff win in five seasons. I wish I could say I enjoyed this win more, but I really think we got lucky here. Boise was, on balance, the better team today. We got some fortunate breaks, especially on defense. It isn't every day that Lin throws 4 INTs - he threw just two INTs all season long. In fact, he's thrown just 4 INTs in the last two regular seasons combined. To put an even finer point on it, he hasn't thrown that many picks in a single game since his 3rd game as a pro - back in 2003. Wow.
But Boise's defense came to play as well. Take a look at our drive chart from the second half:
Code:
3 15:00 1:18 OWN 18 3 4 Punt
3 13:30 1:40 OWN 5 3 5 Punt
3 7:47 1:24 OWN 32 3 0 Punt
3 3:42 1:29 OWN 14 3 4 Fumble
3 0:35 1:02 OWN 26 3 0 Punt
4 12:26 0:58 OWN 42 3 1 Punt
4 7:58 1:16 OWN 20 3 7 Punt
4 4:18 1:11 OWN 15 3 -3 Punt
4 2:31 0:38 OWN 9 4 11 Punt
4 0:20 0:15 OPP 20 2 20 Touchdown
Oof. Eight consecutive 3-and-outs. That's pretty shitty. Thank heavens our punter came to play today (6 of 11 punts inside the 20).
Still, I won't complain. A win is a win, and I'm thrilled that we get to advance to play Denver for the Conference Championship. We only suffered one injury of significance today in WLB Joseph Watford, who strained a calf muscle and will miss three weeks. We'll be OK without him.