GAME NOTES: The 12th-ranked Boise State Broncos try to move beyond the post- game issues that followed their win over 16th-ranked Oregon as they entertain the RedHawks of Miami-Ohio in the first-ever matchup between the two schools on the football field.

The Broncos, who finished a perfect 12-0 during the regular season a year ago before falling by a single point to TCU in a bowl matchup, opened the 2009 campaign in similar fashion by posting a 19-8 win over the Ducks in what has been called the most important home game in BSU history. With the triumph the Broncos have now won 50 straight regular-season games, but a stat like that has been lost amidst the poor sportsmanship shown after the game.

In front of a record crowd at Bronco Stadium, Oregon's LeGarrette Blount touched off a firestorm when he punched BSU defensive end Byron Hout, beginning a scene in which Blount then tangled with fans, coaches and even his own teammates before being taken away by authorities.

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen issued a statement the following day about the incident. "The event that took place last night following our game between Byron and Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount was very unfortunate and we do not condone Byron's action," Petersen noted. "There will be disciplinary consequences for Bryon as a result of the incident last night and they will be handled internally."

As for the RedHawks, they kicked off the new season by buckling under against Kentucky at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati by a final of 42-0. This meeting with BSU is the first of three straight on the fields of the opposition, which means Miami will not play its first home game of the season until it hosts Cincinnati in Oxford on October 3rd.

The loss for Miami, a team that won a total of just two games a season ago, was also the debut of new head coach Michael Haywood. In becoming the 38th head coach in program history, Haywood left his position as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame.

"It's not the way you'd like to start out," coach Haywood said after the miserable effort put forth by Miami. "You'd like to put some points on the board, but more importantly you want to win. We could have won 2-0 and I would have been happy."

The RedHawks controlled the ball for nearly eight minutes in the first frame, but after that the opportunities began to dwindle. Quarterback Daniel Raudabaugh struggled the entire way, hitting just 13-of-42 passes for 126 yards with a pair of interceptions.

The running attack was not much better as Andre Bratton carried the ball seven times for 37 yards, the team coming up with just 62 yards on 22 attempts.

As if trailing 35-0 midway through the third quarter were not bad enough, the RedHawk defense was forced to stay on the field for a whopping 11:22 in the final period. Because there was so much action for the unit, Jerrell Wedge finished the afternoon with a game-high 15 tackles, 11 of which were of the solo variety. Jordan Gafford and Anthony Kokal tallied 13 and 10 stops, respectively.

Even though Miami-Ohio fell hard in the end, Gafford was still upbeat about his team's potential. "The guys were ready to play and they were excited. I think in the first quarter we did a lot of things right, played hard and believed that we could win. If you do those things, you have a chance against anybody."

Then again, it really can't get much worse than it was in 2008 when the RedHawks were 101st in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 32.7 ppg, and 107th in scoring offense, producing a mere 18.4 ppg. If not for a 38-point outburst against Charleston Southern in an 11-point win in the third game of the season, the numbers would look even worse for Miami heading into the new campaign.

One of the biggest issues that Miami has to overcome is turnovers, something that plagued the team all of last season. The RedHawks finished second-to-last in the Mid-American Conference and tied for 110th in the nation with minus-1.0 turnovers per contest. It certainly didn't help that Raudabaugh had more picks (nine) than touchdowns (eight).

Now in his second season as the offensive leader for the Broncos, quarterback Kellen Moore showed he was cool under pressure last Thursday night as he completed 19-of-29 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked twice for a loss of 12 yards, but more importantly, he didn't throw an interception.

"I think a ton of credit goes to the defense today. The defense really shut them (Oregon) down today," Moore said following the game. "That's really impressive and hats off to them."

D.J. Harper and Jeremy Avery handled the bulk of the carries coming out of the backfield as the former rolled up 88 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts and the latter 74 yards on 27 tries.

Austin Pettis, who scored the first points of the night on a 10-yard pass from Moore, ended up with six catches for 68 yards. Although he missed two early field goals of 29 and 47 yards, Kyle Brotzman bounced back with a 45-yard conversion late in the second quarter to give the Broncos a 13-0 lead at the break.

From a defensive standpoint, Boise State went above and beyond against the Ducks, limiting Blount to minus-five yards on eight attempts and the team as a whole to just 31 yards on 17 carries. Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli converted 14-of-27 passes, but that led to just 121 yards, a total that is rather pitiful given that this was the same team that scored 162 points in the final three games of 2008.

The weak effort by the Oregon offense can easily be credited to the BSU defense, seeing as how the Broncos were one of the best in the nation at stopping opponents in '08. Last season, Boise State was ranked first in the Western Athletic Conference and third in the nation with a mere 12.6 ppg allowed. Five times the Broncos held opponents to single digits and only twice did foes put up more than 16 points.

Working into the opposition's backfield was another strength of the Broncos a year ago, the team averaging 2.6 sacks and 6.8 tackles for loss per game, but in the opener versus Oregon the team recorded just five TFLs and a single sack.

Despite being new to the scene Moore, who won WAC Freshman of the Year honors, threw for close to 3,500 yards and 25 touchdowns, offsetting just 10 interceptions. Moore had just two regular season games in which he failed to throw a TD pass, one of those coming against Bowling Green which is also out of the Mid-American Conference.

With all that has gone on since the final gun at the end of the Boise State/Oregon battle, it might be tough to get the Broncos back on the task of focusing for the next opponent. But make no mistake, now that the Ducks hurdle has been cleared, coach Petersen will not allow his team to play 60 minutes and not earn the win against the RedHawks.