BOISE, Idaho -- On the verge of another win over a Pac-12 team on its home field, Boise State nearly crumbled in the final minutes.Fortunately the Broncos did enough over the first three quarter to hold on.Jeremy McNichols rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns, Tyler Horton returned his first career interception 85 yards for a touchdown and Boise State held on in the fourth quarter for a 31-28 win over Washington State on Saturday night.Brett Rypien threw for 299 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown to Thomas Sperbeck, but was intercepted twice in the fourth quarter, giving Washington State chances until the final play when Luke Falks desperation heave was batted down.Boise State (2-0) won its 34th straight regular season non-conference home game, knocking off the last out of conference team to win on The Blue.We did not face adversity in our first game. ... We got a chance to do that tonight, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said.Falk was 55-of-71 passing for 480 yards and four touchdowns, but it took three quarters before he could beat the Broncos throwing downfield, hitting Tavares Martin Jr. on a 50-yard TD late in the third quarter that pulled the Cougars within 24-14. Rypien quickly answered, completing three straight passes for 68 yards before McNichols second touchdown run pushed the Broncos lead 31-14 on the first play of the fourth quarter.That proved to be enough -- barely.There were definitely some uncharacteristic mistakes I made tonight, Rypien said. But we won. Were 2-0.Falk rallied in the fourth quarter, throwing touchdown passes of 14 yards -- on fourth down -- to Jamal Morrow and hitting Gabe Marks on a 33-yard TD with 4:17 left right after Rypien was intercepted to pull within 31-28. Washington State got the ball back with a minute remaining after poor clock management by the Broncos, but the Cougars had their own problems with the clock and settled for Falks final throw that fell short.Leach ripped into his teams toughness after the loss, saying the Cougars outplayed Boise State in every other category.We outperformed them in a ton of different ways but were not tough enough, Leach said. And as a football team we have to get (a lot) tougher and right now were not very tough.Washington State (0-2) was trying to match what it did in 2001 when the Cougars won 41-20 in Boise and rebound from being stunned by FCS power Eastern Washington in last weeks opener. But the Cougars got off to an awful start with Falk getting intercepted on their opening drive deep in Boise State territory and watching Horton manage to stay inbound and sprint 85 yards to give the Broncos the early lead.It was the first of six drives by the Cougars that reached Boise State territory and failed to end in points. The Cougars had a field goal attempt blocked, punted twice and turned the ball over on downs twice inside the Broncos half of the field, the last coming when Morrow was stuffed on fourth-and-1 at the 46 with 5:12 remaining.TAKEAWAYSWashington State: Any momentum from last years nine wins and a bowl victory is gone for the Cougars. They were able to rebound a year ago after losing to FCS Portland State in the opener by winning at Rutgers, but an 0-2 start this year may be difficult to overcome with the upcoming schedule.Boise State: The Broncos remembered how to win at home. Boise State lost its final two home games of last season, the first time losing consecutive home games since 1997. They made sure it wasnt three straight.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Broncos were on the edge of cracking the Top 25 last week. Theres a chance the Broncos could slide in this week, although the fourth quarter rally by Washington State may have taken away some votes. Either way, if the Broncos can win at Oregon State in two weeks, they should be able to break through at that point.UP NEXTWashington State: The Cougars close out their non-conference schedule as Idaho makes the 8-mile trip across the state border to face the Cougars.Boise State: The Broncos get the week off before facing a second straight Pac-12 school, traveling to Oregon State on Sept. 24.LAST WORDIt was a good test for us. It was nice to be able to see what were made of early, Boise State linebacker Ben Weaver said. Stitched Angels Jerseys . Still, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke thought taking him out before the fifth inning was an unusual move. "Im looking up at the board and hes got two hits given up and one run, and Im taking him out after the fourth inning," Roenicke said. Wholesale Angels Jerseys . The 27-year-old Scrivens will be joining his third NHL club since signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2010. The move also reunites with him with head coach Dallas Eakins from their time together with the American Hockey Leagues Toronto Marlies. https://www.cheapangels.com/ . LOUIS -- Rookie Tavon Austin has missed another day of practice, lessening the odds hell be ready for the St. Los Angeles Angels Shirts . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Los Angeles Angels Pro Shop . Neymar curled home a free kick from just outside the area to put the 2014 World Cup host ahead in the 44th minute. Three minutes after the break, a simple through pass from Paulinho freed Oscar and the Chelsea star rounded goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong to extend Brazils lead. 1. Global expansionThe PGA Tours announcement this week that it will add a third official event next year in Asia offers some interesting possibilities, some of which will have to be dealt with quickly, while others can at least be dreamed about.The CJ Cup in South Korea will be staged starting in 2017 in late October between the CIMB Classic in Malaysia and the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. PGA Tour deputy commissioner Jay Monahan -- who will succeed Tim Finchem as commissioner sometime next year -- was on hand to announce a 10-year deal with the CJ Group, adding to the tours footprint in Asia.Much like the CIMB Classic -- which began in 2010 and was won this past Sunday by Justin Thomas -- the final FedEx Cup standings will be used to determine most of the field, with a number of other exemptions to be announced. The purse will be a whopping $9.25 million, outpaced only by majors, the Players Championship and World Golf Championships events.How this tournament will fit into a crammed fall schedule after the Presidents Cup/Ryder Cup has yet to be announced. As the fall schedule now stands, tournaments go right up until the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, with the PGA Tour then taking a break until January. It is tough to envision the circuit going beyond Thanksgiving (the Hero World Challenge and Franklin Templeton Shootout events are staged in early December, but both are considered unofficial), so something has to give.The present pre-Thanksgiving schedule consists of the Safeway Open, CIMB Classic, WGC-HSBC (with Sanderson Farms as an opposite event this week), Shriners Hospital for Childrens Open in Las Vegas, the OHL Classic in Cancun, Mexico, and the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia.Will Las Vegas, OHL or RSM move? Become an opposite event? Those are questions to be resolved in the short term.2. A Pacific swingBy playing three events in Asia, the PGA Tour opens up the potential for some sort of Pacific swing, a long-term goal that has some viability -- although it has not been discussed officially and might be just a dream.If you go along with the notion that its difficult to get any kind of traction domestically for golf at this time of year -- and that TV ratings are going to be flat no matter when and where the events are played with all the other sporting options -- then why not turn this time of year into an overseas expedition?Move the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii to the first event of the new season. Then head to Malaysia, South Korea and China. Turn one of the Australian summer events -- such as the Australian Open -- into a co-sanctioned PGA Tour event. Then conclude with the Sony Open in Hawaii. Six events to start the season, all with prime-time or late-night TV slots in the U.S. Four of the events are no-cut, guaranteed money.Moving the Hawaiian events out of their traditional January spots is certainly not going to happen easily. But for all the talk about golf going up against football, those weeks might be the worst of all -- it is the same time as the NFLs wild-card and divisional playoff weekends, meaning two games each on Saturday and Sunday.Why not wait for golf until the weekend of the NFLs conference championship games, which are both played on Sunday? End the Palm Springs event on Saturday, and youve got a start to golf in the new calendar year without so much competition.3. Easy to say, hard to doOf course, its no big deal to write that this is how it should go down. There are undoubtedly obstacles to all of this, not the least of which is what to do with the fall events so easily discarded here: the Safeway Open, the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, the OHL Classic and the RSM Classic. Perhaps these events can find a spot somewhere else on the schedule, or become opposite events.dddddddddddd. Maybe the PGA Tour wont move the Hawaii tournaments, and some of those fall tournaments bookend the Pacific events.Or maybe the PGA Tour will leave things alone and have an extremely jumbled geographic schedule with widely varying purses to start the new season each year.4. A different kind of hazardThe PGA Tour noted a scary hazard that emerged during the second round of last weeks CIMB Classic at the TPC Kuala Lumpur, far more scary?than any kind of water or sand.5. Reading the fine printWilliam McGirt wanted to play this weeks Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi. He had played in the event the past five years, liked it and wanted to support it again. But his victory at the Memorial in June and a strong 2015-16 season meant he qualified for this weeks WGC-HSBC Champions in China. The Sanderson Farms event is opposite the WGC, so Mississippi wasnt an option for McGirt. Since the inception of the World Golf Championships events in 1999, the PGA Tour has a rule that stipulates an eligible player for a limited-field, no-cut official event is not allowed to participate in an opposite tournament. The basis for the rule is to assure that the special event is supported.McGirt is not competing in China, but he elected to help out the Sanderson event by playing in the pro-am -- which had to be signed off by the tour.The tour has a similar rule that involves the Web.com Tour. A fully exempt PGA Tour player (those who qualify via the Web.com Tour are not considered fully exempt) is not allowed to compete in a Web.com event the same week.6. First and lastFor some, it is the first WGC event of the new season. For others, it is the last. And for even a few more, it is both. This weeks WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai is the third week of the PGA Tours 2016-17 schedule and the first of four WGC events for the season. But for those on the European Tour, its the fourth-to-last event on the schedule and the last of four WGCs. Then there are those who play both tours and benefit twice.Rory McIlroy gets to play his first event of the PGA Tour season while also enhancing his place on the European Tours Race to Dubai, which starting next week has three events as part of its Final Series to conclude the year. The Turkish Airlines Open is followed by the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa and then the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.7. Short-game successPadraig Harringtons victory at the Portugal Masters was his first on the European Tour since he captured The Open and the PGA Championship in 2008. And he knows why he was successful.8. And the celebration took place at -- Five Guys?9. New rule to ponderPGA Tour members have a new rule to deal with this year that requires them to play a tournament they have not played in the last four years. It does not apply to those who competed in or will compete in at least 25 tournaments, nor does it apply to players age 45 and older (Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington, for example) or to life members. And the majors, WGCs, Players and FedEx Cup playoff events also do not count.This wont be a big deal for many players, who can simply pick one tournament to play that they didnt in the last four years. But for those with dual membership on the PGA Tour and European Tour, some scheduling problems could arise because such a stipulation means they might have to find events to play that are not conducive to their travel schedules. Failure to comply can result in a suspension or a hefty fine. ' ' '
