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| Rough outing for Vandals |
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| Written by Levi Johnstone - Argonaut | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 29 September 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The University of Idaho Vandal football team travelled to San Diego this weekend hoping to return to Moscow with its first victory against a Football Bowl Subdivision, opponent — the teams effort was thwarted by inconsistent play on both sides of the ball. The Vandals were drastically outgained on offense again this week as the San Diego State Aztecs put up 603-yards of total offense compared to UI’s 351-yards. While the defense did play well during stretches of the game, its inconsistency was still an issue. “It comes down to consistency,” said senior defensive end Josh Shaw. “Every guy has to do his job every play.” Shaw completed the game with six tackles, two of which were tackles for a loss. The offense also had difficulty putting together successful plays. Starting running back Deonte’ Jackson was sidelined for much of the game with back trouble, and backups Princeton McCarty and Troy Vital provided a boost to the struggling offense as they ran for a combined 129-yards and two touchdowns. The UI passing attack never quite got off the ground. Quarterback Nathan Enderle completed just 11-26 passes for 112 yards, 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Tight end Eddie Williams continued his impressive play leading all Idaho receivers with seven catches for 77 yards. Williams credited execution as one reason the offense sputtered during the game. “We didn’t execute the way we wanted to in the first half,” Williams said. “We’ve got to be able to find a way to play four quarters. We either come out hard and end slow or the other way around. We have to execute better. There is no real secret to it. It’s that simple.” Big plays seemed to doom the Vandals as well. The Aztecs had four passing touchdowns that went for 40-yards or more. The longest being a 51-yard bomb in the third quarter. “There were too many big plays given up by our defense early,” Idaho coach Robb Akey said. “That might have shaken their confidence. But, it happened. We have to learn to play through it.” After the Vandals found themselves down by only one touchdown at the end of the first quarter, the Aztecs exploded for a 17-point second quarter to leave the Vandals trailing 24-3 at the half. Akey has not given up hope yet and with Dad’s weekend coming this week is looking forward to a better performance. “The important thing is to stay together; to stay united,” he said. “We’re on the cusp. We have to keep banging away.”  Add as favorites (34) | Views: 547
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