Despite an impressive offensive display and forcing four turnovers on defense, the Idaho football team couldn’t rally to beat Texas State Saturday in San Marcos, Texas.
With the 35-30 loss, the Vandals fall to 0-5 on the season and have lost 12-straight games and 19 consecutive road games.
Idaho can put an end to the losing streaks with a win at Georgia Southern Saturday. The Eagles are 4-2, but 3-0 in the Sun Belt and currently sit atop the conference standings.
“I wish for everybody we could’ve pulled it out, but we didn’t,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “You look at this stat sheet and it makes you cry.”
After a quick glance at the stat sheet, one might think the outcome was different. Idaho finished with 19 more first downs, 271 more passing yards and the defense forced two more turnovers than Texas State did.
“All those stats are great, but we needed to get a win,” Petrino said. “We had 105 plays, 523 yards. They had 58 plays, 456. So what killed us is we had the ball 41 minutes, they had it 18.”
As it has all year, big plays hurt the Vandals. Texas State running back Terrence Franks scored touchdown runs of 70, 95 and 70 yards. The senior finished with 284 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries.
“We kept fighting and came up short,” Petrino said. “What killed us is we were all the way down there (red zone) … I don’t know how many times and we didn’t get the points.”
This season, the Vandals haven’t been able to start games on a positive note. Prior to Texas State, Idaho was outscored 56-14 in first quarters this season..
The Vandals, however, kept it close in the first quarter against Texas State and only trailed 7-3. But in the second quarter, Texas State extended its lead to 21-3 at halftime.
Petrino said a couple mistakes hurt the team in the first half, but some halftime adjustments helped his team get back into the game.
“I think I ran the ball a little bit more, I think that helped,” Petrino said. “I think we wore them out, protected him (quarterback Matt Linehan) a little better.”
The adjustments allowed Idaho back into the game.
Linehan eclipsed 300 passing yards for the fourth time in his young five-game career, but his two interceptions proved to be costly — notably the final one.
Down five with just under two minutes remaining, Linehan and company took the field with an opportunity to win. After two plays though, Linehan threw his second interception of the game.
Texas State took over, took a knee and took the game.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]