Oregon came into this season with national championship hopes amid a loaded roster, and the Boise State Broncos nearly crashed the party in Eugene on Saturday.
Boise State built a 17–7 lead over the Ducks in the first half behind Broncos quarterback Maddux Madsen’s big throws. Then, the Ducks woke up and rallied for a 34–27 win in the only game of the day where a top-25 team struggled with an unranked opponent.
“I think playing that quarterback tonight, that guy is going to win a lot of games for their team this year,” Ducks head coach Dan Lanning told reporters afterward. “That team is going to win a lot of games this year. He played really, really well, in my opinion, for them.”
Among the nation’s top 10, No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Texas, and No. 6 Indiana all blew out opponents at home. Similarly, most of the top 25 cruised to wins, with blowout victories by No. 18 Penn State, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 22 Iowa, and No. 23 Houston.
That said, none of the top-25 teams in the major polls had a matchup like Oregon’s with the Broncos. Clemson at No. 11 LSU could count, but the US LBM poll ranked Clemson at No. 23, and the ACC power didn’t get ranked in the AP poll.
Boise State is the gold standard for Group of Six, or non-power-conference teams, in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Broncos also have the Ducks’ number with an all-time series lead of 3–2.
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“Boise State is always tough to play. Spencer does a great job with his team,” Lanning said. “They had some good scheme and some good elements that they executed well.”
The Broncos made the College Football Playoff once and won the Fiesta Bowl three times over Oklahoma, TCU, and Arizona.
Boise State’s 2009 team went 14–0 but didn’t win the national championship under the former Bowl Championship Series setup, which favored power-conference teams.
That year, the Broncos beat Oregon 19–8, and Boise State has beaten the Ducks as recently as 2017 with a 38–28 win in the Las Vegas Bowl. Oregon survived the previous meeting before Saturday with a 37–34 victory in 2024.
“There’s a lot that we can do a lot better,” Lanning said. “This almost is kind of a flip side of the last time that we played Boise, where, in a lot of ways, we won the game with total yards and some situations, but we didn’t really win the critical situations. They won some of those critical situations.”
Boise State came into Saturday’s game looking to turn things around as a new member of the Pac-12, Oregon’s former conference, after a relatively down year in 2025. The Broncos went 9–5 in 2025 after early-season losses to USF and Notre Dame.
Madsen got things started strong for the Broncos by leading an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive. After Madsen’s second touchdown pass in the second quarter, he led another scoring drive that resulted in a field goal for the 10-point edge.
Quarterback Dante Moore #5 of the Oregon Ducks warms up before the game against the Boise State Broncos at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., on Sept. 5, 2026. Ali Gradischer/Getty Images
Madsen went 15–29 for 181 yards and had three touchdown passes in a performance that rivaled Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, a Heisman Trophy contender. Moore led an 8-play, 50-yard touchdown drive to even things 7–7, and he connected with a 27-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jamari Johnson with 1:02 left in the half, 17–14.
Moore put the Ducks ahead in the third quarter on an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan, but Madsen answered with a 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Matt Wagner, 24–24.
Oregon and Boise State traded punches again in the fourth quarter with offsetting field goals, 27–27. Moore then put his team ahead to stay with a 62-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Dakorien Moore with 7:51 left in the game.
Offensive lineman Ziyare Addison #58 of the Oregon Ducks points towards the crowd during the second half of the game against the Boise State Broncos at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., on Sept. 5, 2026. Ali Gradischer/Getty Images
“I thought Dante, from my seat, played extremely well, got us into the right checks. Again, I thought they had some good answers,” Lanning said.
“But some of the plays that we will celebrate in our program are the decisions to throw the ball away. The decisions not to put the ball at risk. I thought he operated really clean.”
Oregon’s defense also rose to the occasion down the stretch and only allowed 18 yards on nine plays for the Broncos’ final two drives. The Ducks needed it, as Boise State’s defense forced a punt and made one last plug to get the ball back at the end of the game.
