Accomplishing the improbable — takeaways from Idaho vs. Eastern Washington

Idaho football pulled off the unthinkable on Saturday — dominating the No. 11 Eastern Washington Eagles to grab the upset win.

The Vandals (2-2) finished off non-conference play in stellar fashion in a 35-27 win over the Eagles (1-3).

This is the first Idaho football win over the Eagles since 1999, and it happened in an intimidating fashion.

“I wasn’t going to tell anybody but, I was confident going into this game,” Idaho Head Coach Paul Petrino said after the game. “I felt like we were going to go play really good.”

This is the first Idaho football win over the Eagles since 1999, and it happened in an intimidating fashion.

From start to finish, the Vandals held control against a stunned Eastern Washington team.

After last season’s loss in Cheney, many players felt this rematch was personal. The Vandals definitely turned that emotion into possibly one of the best football performances in the last two seasons.

“Last year was personal you know with the way (Eastern Washington) played.” Idaho junior linebacker Christian Elliss said after the game. “We wanted to destroy them, we wanted to bury them, we wanted to put them in the dirt.”

The Vandals may have played their best first half of football this season, holding a 28-0 lead at halftime.

While the Vandals were outscored 27-7 in the second half, the offense and defense made plays when the team needed them the most.

Idaho quarterback Mason Petrino proved today why he was named the Vandal’s starter at quarterback.

Petrino finished with 22-31 passing for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Petrino also found success on the ground finishing with 63 yards rushing.

The senior quarterback shined the brightest with his scrambling ability on Saturday, making huge plays to keep the Idaho offense on the field.

Let’s take a look at the standout takeaways from Saturday’s action.

Taking their time: Going into this game Idaho had to control the clock. With EWU having one of the best offenses in the FCS led by quarterback Eric Barriere, keeping them off the field was key.

In the first half, Idaho dominated in time of possession. The Vandal offense was on the field for nearly 22 minutes in the first half, with the Eagle offense only seeing the field for eight minutes.

With Barriere having no momentum in the first half, the offense struggled to find any footing.

“The best way to defend (Barriere) is keeping him over on the sideline,” coach Petrino said. “He’s super special so we wanted him to be standing over there as long as possible.”

Idaho’s offense proved to be the more superior on Saturday with controlling the clock being the main factor.

Three’s the magic number: Last weekend Idaho played well enough on third down to stay competitive with Wyoming.

This week, the Vandals played well enough to pull off the win.

The Idaho offense finished 10-16 on third down conversions, while the defense forced the Eagle offense to only three third down conversions.

Winning in the trenches: Idaho made their statement early by being intimidating at the line of scrimmage.

Behind a strong offensive line, Petrino was able to be calm in the pocket and march down field on the opening possession to get a lead early.

“We were definitely trying to set a tone at the beginning of the game,” Idaho senior offensive lineman Noah Johnson said after the game. “That was really one of our goals. Start early and fast.”

The Vandals finished with 223 yards rushing averaging nearly five yards per run, with the offensive line leading the way.

Statement made: Idaho proved on Saturday that it can compete with the best in the Big Sky.

After the standout win, expectations are set for this team and that is to compete at a high level every week and come away with wins.

There should be no more talk about quarterback play, Mason Petrino has now proven that he can lead this team.

With Big Sky play kicking off next week, all the momentum is now in the Vandals’ favor.

Idaho will play it’s first Big Sky game of the season traveling to take on Northern Colorado Saturday, Sept. 28th.

Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @chris_DEREMER