GAME NOTES: Playing outside of the Golden State for the first time this season, the San Jose State Spartans have the unenviable task of traveling to Idaho to confront the sixth-ranked Boise State Broncos in a Western Athletic Conference battle on the blue turf.

San Jose State has been out of action since bowing to Fresno State on the road on October 17th by a final of 41-21. The setback was the second in a row and the fifth in six tries this season for the Spartans, a team that is second from the bottom in the league standings with an 0-2 record versus the rest of the WAC.

As for the Broncos, they remained one of only seven undefeated programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision by completely dominating the Hawaii Warriors in Honolulu last Saturday, 54-9. With their seven-game win streak, tied for sixth-longest in the nation entering this week, one would have thought that Boise State and head coach Chris Petersen deserved more respect, but in fact the team remained sixth in the current AP Poll and actually dropped from fourth to seventh in the BCS rankings.

The reason for the drop in the BCS was due to changes in the six computer rankings and not the human aspect of the poll, so at least the Broncos don't have to carry a grudge against any one individual voter necessarily.

BSU has never lost to the Spartans, winning all nine previous meetings between the programs, including a 33-16 decision last year. Back in 2006, the first season under coach Petersen, SJSU came the closest to knocking off an undefeated Boise State team during the regular season, coming up just short in a 23-20 game in California.

Even as Kellen Moore threw a career-best five touchdowns in the lopsided win against Hawaii last weekend, he still remained on the field until late in the second half as he tried to iron out some of the issues with the transition between himself and the center. Moore converted 18-of-30 passes for 223 yards, with all but one of his scoring tosses coming in the first half.

"We only have two quarterbacks," stated coach Petersen after the game, "(backup QB) Mike (Coughlin) got dinged on his one carry and they wouldn't let him go back in the game, so we had to play (starting QB) Kellen the whole time."

While Moore was edged out by Nevada's Colin Kaepernick for WAC Offensive Player of the Week, safety Jeron Johnson and kicker Kyle Brotzman still brought home their respective awards from the league on Monday.

In the case of Brotzman, he knocked through a career-best four field goals and finished with 18 total points for the squad, while Johnson accounted for half of the six forced turnovers by the Broncos. Johnson was credited with a pair of interceptions and also recovered a fumble, all of which eventually led to 10 points for Boise State.

"This a very hard place to play, and I think six turnovers is the reason that we were able to get such a commanding lead," coach Petersen admitted. "I give credit to our defense; when we play like that on defense we'll be hard to stop."

After seven games this season, the Broncos rank first in the WAC and seventh in the country with a turnover margin of plus-1.29 per game, a stat that has as much to do with Moore and the offense as it does with Johnson and the defense.

As the reigning WAC Freshman of the Year, Moore is showing that his performance in 2008 was no fluke, having thrown for better than 1,600 yards and 21 touchdowns, but a mere two interceptions over the course of 194 attempts. A semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award, Moore currently boasts the best pass efficiency rating (172.1) in the nation.

Boise State has pounded on opponents ever since being limited to just 19 points in a win over Oregon in the opener, scoring no less than four touchdowns since, which is why the squad is showing a scoring average of 40.4 ppg and is ranked third in the entire nation. But this is nothing new for the Broncos because since 2000 they have the highest scoring average of any team in the nation at 40.44 ppg over the course of 122 contests.

San Jose State head coach Dick Tomey has certainly seen better days during his five seasons with the Spartans, but right now everything seems to be working against him, his staff and the players.

"This is a great opportunity for any team," coach Tomey says of the matchup with the Broncos. "...to go into Boise and take your shot. They have an outstanding team on offense, defense and their special teams. Since coach Petersen's been there the thing that's improved most is their defense."

Coach Tomey and the rest of the Spartans had better be worried about all facets of the Boise State program because it won't just be the offense that will be feasting on SJSU if it comes out flat.

Right now the Spartans have the second-worst rushing offense in the WAC, ranked 113th in the country, with just 77.7 ypg. Put that together with a passing attack that is registering only 208.8 ypg and the San Jose State offense is one of the weakest in all of college football with just 286.5 ypg overall (116th).

Quarterback Jordan La Secla has managed to complete an impressive 62.3 percent of his pass attempts thus far, but because he has almost as many interceptions (five) as he does touchdowns (seven) it is difficult to consider him a threat against the vaunted BSU defense.

The squad has posted a mere five rushing touchdowns through six games, one of those by La Secla, the others being split evenly between Lamon Muldrow and Brandon Rutley. However, the latter has seen action in only four games and gained a total of just 27 net yards, which means Muldrow is going to get most of the carries for this group. Of the 164 total attempts for the Spartans on the ground, 56 have been attributed to Muldrow and he has turned those into 308 yards, averaging better than five yards a clip.

On the receiving end of the action down the field, Kevin Jurovich paces SJSU with his 37 catches, averaging almost 13 yards per grab, yet he has not made it into the end zone to this point in the season and that has to be a concern for the offense.

Defensively the numbers might be even more bleak for the Spartans as they rank 114th in the country with 457 ypg allowed and 109th in terms of points permitted at 33.5 ppg. Brothers Carl and Duke Ihenacho continue to claim most of the headlines from the group as the former ranks first on the team in sacks and tackles for loss, but as a whole the Spartans are generating just 1.33 sacks per contest and 4.17 TFLs right now.

With a string of 22 straight wins at home, the second-longest run behind only Oklahoma at the moment, Boise State is a force to be reckoned with in Idaho and very few opponents have even been able to say that they've stayed within striking distance on the blue turf. Expect it to be more of the same this weekend as SJSU finds itself just another victim of BSU's pursuit of a BCS bid.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Boise State 55, San Jose State 17