That could’ve gone better. After the Vandals won last week’s game by a historic margin against Simon Fraser, it was time to come back to Earth this week against the Indiana Hoosiers.
Almost everything that could have gone wrong for the Vandals did, special teams especially. Idaho’s punt team had a punt blocked for a touchdown and allowed a punt return for a touchdown.
The Vandals could not do anything to stop the run game of Indiana, allowing 179 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Idaho also allowed three passing touchdowns from Indiana, two coming from Michael Penix Jr. and one coming from backup quarterback Jack Tuttle.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Vandals didn’t fare much better. A running game that was unstoppable against Simon Fraser mustered only 65 rushing yards on three yards a carry and no touchdowns.
The Vandals also had a problem with penalties during the game. Idaho had a drive early in the game that had two back-to-back false start penalties. Redshirt junior linebacker Fa’Avae Fa’Avae had a taunting penalty that gave the Hoosiers a first and goal at the five-yard line that negated what would have been a third-down stop from the Vandals. Idaho ended the game with eight penalties.
However, with the struggle there were some good moments for the Vandals. Graduate quarterback Mike Beaudry started the game for the Vandals and failed to put points on the board for the team during most of the first half. Coach Paul Petrino tried getting some momentum for the offense by putting in freshman quarterback CJ Jordan, but to no success. Beaudry responded by leading a touchdown drive to end the first half, getting first downs both running and passing the ball and capping the drive with a touchdown to sophomore receiver Hayden Hatten. Then Beaudry connected with Hatten on another touchdown during the team’s first drive of the second half.
Beaudry did fumble the ball on a strip sack by Micah McFadden, but that was the only negative mark for what was an overall great performance by Beaudry. Despite the overall team performance, it almost guaranteed Beaudry’s play will keep him in the quarterback competition after Jordan’s performance last week against Simon Fraser.
Along with offense, the defensive line did have some shining moments in this game, despite the Hoosiers’ success in running the ball. They had four tackles for loss and two sacks and junior linebacker Tre Walker had 12 total tackles in the game. They also had a good first drive against Indiana, in which it took Indiana 18 plays and over eight minutes of clock to score.
This game was a blowout. No question about it, however there are some good takeaways from this game. For one — Tre Walker is legit. The Big 10 announcers repeated his name the whole game, and for good reason. Walker so far looks like the best player on Idaho’s defense and possibly the best player on the whole team. He will cause problems no matter what level of competition the Vandals face.
The next takeaway is that both Jordan and Beaudry are more than capable quarterbacks. The third man in the competition, Zach Borisch, saw no playing time until late in the game, but his skillset as a wildcat and option QB almost guarantees him offensive packages no matter who wins the competition. Beaudry showed that he can bounce back from adversity, and Jordan showed last week that he can make plays in a variety of ways. Whoever wins the quarterback competition will have earned it.
The final takeaway is that the running game is the Vandals’ key to victory. Indiana did a great job at taking away the run game from the Vandals and once that happened. Idaho was forced to rely on the passing game to make something happen. If the Vandals are going to have any sustained success during this season — it’s going to be off the legs of their running backs.
After last week’s win against Simon Fraser, Petrino framed this game as a learning experience for the Vandals. He is, no doubt, unhappy with a 56-14 loss, but there are lessons from the loss ahead of their away game against Oregon State and the homecoming game against UC Davis. Hopefully the Vandals can bounce back next week in Corvallis.
Teren Kotwatsch can be reached at [email protected]