BOISE, Idaho -- Nevada thought this was going to be the year.

After losing to Boise State for nine consecutive years, Nevada players thought this year’s team was the one to take down the WAC champions.

But the Wolf Pack found themselves down 20-0 at the end of the first quarter and spent the entire game fighting an uphill battle against the No. 6 team in the country; the best team coach Chris Ault said his Wolf Pack had faced all season.

“I’m getting tired of falling behind and jumping back,” Ault said. “That’s disappointing, it really is. You can’t fall behind a Boise State like we do and consistently expect to stay close. That’s tough stuff, and they’re too good of a football team.

“When it happens as fast as it did to us; they scored their first three possessions with the back out and stuff that we’d seen and we weren’t even close on it. You wonder when you’re going to gather yourself and stop this stuff. Again, they had their way with us in that first half, in particular from a defensive standpoint.”

Nevada fell 44-33, the Wolf Pack’s first double-digit loss to Boise State since 2006. The previous two games had been decided by nine total points.

Nevada came into Friday’s game with a ton of confidence after rebounding from a 0-3 start to win its next eight games. The Wolf Pack put themselves in a position to win the WAC title with a win over the Broncos, and the running game, which had been stagnant during the losing streak, was showing its true potential.

But Boise State squashed all of that. The Broncos ran back the opening kick and then scored on their next two possessions. Nevada was forced to adjust its game plan and try to score quickly. It had trouble mounting any sort of offense while it tried to get its bearings.

“You can’t let them go the first play of the game and put you behind the eight ball right away,” Ault said. “That’s tough. The demoralizing part of it, the morale, you’ve got to pick up by your play. You’re not all of a sudden going to run up and down the field on Boise State. It takes some time to get that stuff back.”

Every time the Boise State offense left the door open for a comeback, the Wolf Pack couldn’t step through. They cut the lead to eight twice, but could never get any closer.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had been so key during the past two months, had one of the worst games of his season. Although he threw for 141 yards and three touchdowns, he also threw several passes into the ground in front of open receivers. He rushed for 31 yards, his second-lowest rushing game of the season.

The Nevada defense allowed 427 total yards and five touchdowns. The touchdowns tied a season high.

“To be the champions, you’ve got to beat the champions,” said running back Luke Lippincott, who’s lost to Boise State for six consecutive seasons. “We definitely felt like we had the team that could beat these guys, and it’s just a tough and disappointing loss.”