Offense
Dominique Blackman played like a man possessed Saturday night in Bowling Green, Ohio, for his first ever Division I-FBS start, completing his first seven passes en route to a 30 for 37 night with 352 yards and a touchdown. The problem was consistently stringing drives together and converting on third down. Idaho had 17 first downs on the entire night and didn’t score their first and only touchdown of the game until the fourth quarter. Receivers Jahrie Level and Mike Scott were able to make big plays every once in awhile for the Vandals, but with the running game totaling 23 yards between the backs, consistency on offense was nowhere to be found.
Defense
The big play downed the Vandals in last year’s 32-15 defeat to the Bowling Green Falcons at home, and it was the Achilles heel again in 2012 as Matt Schilz averaged 8.1 yards per passing attempt, with each of Bowling Green’s three leading receivers averaging over 10 yards per catch. Shaun Joplin averaged 16.7 per catch with a long reception of 42 yards. The defensive line got decent pressure on Schilz, but as was the case last week against Eastern Washington, it wasn’t enough to get Schilz out of a rhythm as he eventually found a way to make plays. The linebackers did a great job to support run defense, holding Bowling Green under triple digits aside from an Anthon Samuel 29-yard touchdown run in the third quarter where he was barely touched. The Vandals did as much as they should have been asked to do defensively against the run and in the front seven.
Special Teams
Idaho did well against the Falcons in the special teams department, as can be expected from this group by now. Bobby Cowan was back to being Bobby Cowan, averaging 47.3 yards on his four punts. Trey Farquhar only missed once, but it was a horrible shank that prevented the Vandals from gaining the lead in the second quarter. He did his job on kick-offs, preventing any large returns from Bowling Green . Justin Veltung had 21 yards per kickoff return on three returns, which was three more opportunities than he had against Eastern Washington. Thunder in the return game sparked Idaho last season when the offense stalled.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]
Illustration by Brittani Curley| Argonaut