On Friday night, Boise State and Nevada gave us one of the wildest and strangest final moments in recent memory. Nevada emerged with a 34-31 overtime win, and Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman emerged as the goat.
Boise State, who has not lost a regular-season game since 2007, lept to an early 17-0 lead. Nothing was clicking for the Wolf Pack, who entered the second half down 24-7.
Nevada rallied to tie the game, thanks to rushing touchdowns from Colin Kaepernick and Rishard Matthews and a field goal from Anthony Martinez. With just under five minutes left in the game, Boise State finally answered back with an absolutely spectacular 79-yard touchdown reception by Doug Martin.
Down 31-24, the Wolf Pack then marched down the field, making good on two third-down conversions to find themselves at Boise State's 7 yard-line. The team, however, seemed in a state of confusion. The team's final timeout was used in a manner that needlessly burned twenty seconds of precious clock, and they were left with under 25 seconds with which to work.
Quarterback Colin Kapernick was calling in confusion to the sideline. An 11th man finally sprinted out to the line. With one second remaining on the play clock, Kaepernick found Rishard Matthews in the end zone, and the game was tied.
This is not the craziest part.
Boise State returned the ball to its 37, bringing quarterback Kellen Moore to the line with nine seconds left. He heaved a deep ball, and thanks to some remarkably poor secondary coverage on Nevada's part, Titus Young caught the ball on the Nevada 9. Boise State called its final timeout. And then, with two seconds left and the score tied, kicker Kyle Brotzman shanked the 26-yard field goal.
This is not the craziest part.
The game moved to overtime. After Nevada stymied Kellen Moore's passing attack enough to force enough field goal on the first overtime possession, the Broncos were forced to trot out Brotzman, once again, to make a short field goal -- this one from 29 yards.
He missed it. Again.
How, in a game that carries such large implications not only for a school, but for the politics of college football at large, can a kicker miss not one, but two crucial field goals within 30 yards? It's difficult to say, so we should only say what we know: that on the ensuing Nevada possession, the Wolf Pack's Anthony Martinez banged through a 34-yard field goal to win the game.
For more, check in with SB Nation's Boise State blog, One Bronco Nation Under God.