BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Ashton Jeanty ran for 209 yards and three touchdowns and No. 12 Boise State beat Nevada 28-21 on Saturday night for its seventh straight victory.

Boise State (8-1, 5-0 Mountain West, No. 12 CFP) remained in a strong position among the Group of Five teams vying for the automatic bid to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. The Broncos’ only loss was a 37-34 setback at now No. 1 Oregon.

“This is competition month,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “What we did before, it doesn’t matter. It’s about finishing 1-0 every week. …But we found a way to win. That’s a testament to our players. And we will build more from this game than we would build from a big loss.”

This one wasn’t easy, although at first it looked like it could be a loss.

Boise State’s offense sputtered until the fourth quarter when Maddux Madsen engineered a 10-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Jeanty, but only after a replay booth review overturned an interception. at the 1 yard line.

Nevada (3-8, 0-5) appeared poised to score before Sean Dollars fumbled at the 1-yard line and the Broncos recovered in the end zone.

“There were some unfortunate breaks in this game that got away from them,” Nevada coach Jeff Choate said. “They created some of them and we gave them some of them. And that’s how the game goes sometimes.”

Boise State scored on its first two possessions. Matt Lauter caught an 11-yard touchdown pass and Jeanty made his way to the end zone on a 4-yard run to make the score 14-0 midway through the first quarter.

The Wolfpack fought their way back, scoring on a 17-yard run by quarterback Brendon Lewis and a 44-yard pass from wide receiver Marcus Bellon to Caleb Ramseur to tie the score.

Boise State looked shaky early in the second half, missing the kickoff before recovering it at the 5. The Broncos then marched 95 yards in eight plays, scoring on a 1-yard Jeanty run.

Lewis was 17 of 26 for 188 yards. He also had a touchdown run.

Nevada: While the Wolf Pack saw its slim hopes of achieving bowl eligibility end, Choate in his first season at Nevada has the program headed in the right direction. Nevada has been a hard-luck team, losing five games by a touchdown or less and being competitive against the Broncos for most of the game.

“That’s the kind of program I want to build here,” Choate said. “Really resilient and really tough, don’t make excuses and just get to work. We’ve had some heartbreaking losses against some good teams and unfortunately this is just another one of them. But that is part of the journey and we are going to continue fighting.”

Boise State: With more teams managing to contain Jeanty, the Broncos need more consistent play from Madsen. The second-year quarterback has flashed his potential at times this season, but against Nevada he threw an interception along with two more that were overturned by penalty and review, and went off target in key situations.

Nevada: Hosts the Air Force on November 23.

Boise State: At San Jose State next Saturday.

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