Idaho's victory at Texas State last Saturday night was another total team effort but, often, the defense stood out. The Vandals, with eight tackles for loss totaling 41 yards (four were sacks for -29), had the Bobcats in retreat with a total -18 rushing yards – an historic best for Idaho.
 
Errant snaps from center led to some of the lost yardage but Texas State's leading rusher (Stedman Mayberry) still managed just 29 total yards and he was caught for a loss once. Since 1999, the Vandal defense has limited opponents to less than 50 rushing yards 10 times and to fewer than 100 39 times. The -18 yards was the fewest since they yielded just 15 to the University of Hawai`i in 2011. Third on the list is 22 to Montana State in 2000. Here are the 10 games with the fewest yards rushing allowed:

1. -18, Texas State, Nov. 12, 2016
2. 15, Hawai`i, Oct. 29, 2011
3. 22, Montana State, Sept. 30, 2000
4. 23, Louisiana-Monroe, Nov. 2, 2001
5. 25, Wyoming, Oct. 2, 1999
6. 29, North Dakota, Sept. 10, 2011
7. 31, New Mexico State, Oct. 7, 2006 and Eastern Washington, Sept. 6, 2003
8. 35, New Mexico State, Oct. 25, 2008
9. 41, Hawai`i, Sept. 24, 2005
10. 48, Montana, Sept. 9, 2000

 
Certainly the offense did its part with Matt Linehan completing 78.8 percent of his passes for his fifth-best career total yardage output of 336 yards. He added another 24 rushing for 360 yards total offense. Isaiah Saunders had his second successive game of more than 100 all-purpose yards with 89 rushing and 14 passing for a total 103.
 
And, making his offensive debut, was defensive tackle Tueni Lupeamanu who scored twice on one-yard plunges as the Vandals had their second-highest point total of the season and their second-best total yardage game this year. Their 47 points were the 13^th best as an FBS team (since 1996).
 
Austin Rehkow's six point-after kicks and one field goal enabled him to keep the Sun Belt scoring lead (18^th nationally). He leads the league with 92 total points (16^th among FBS players). His 22 field goals this season (he had a 25-yarder at Texas State) enabled him to keep the NCAA lead in field goals per game at 2.2. His 91.7 percent accuracy rate is second in the league and eighth nationally and his punting average of 43.2 yards per kick is second in the conference and 29^th nationally.
 
Linehan took the Sun Belt lead in total passing yards with 2,446 with two games to play. That's 36^th nationally. He is third in yards per attempt (7.39), and fourth in passing yards per game (244.6) and completion percentage (.616).
 
Despite an uncharacteristic 14 penalties at Texas State, the Vandals still are one of the least penalized teams in the league with a total of 57 (second), an average of 5.7 per game (second), and an average of 56.6 penalty yards per game (fourth). They're also second in the league in fumble recoveries (8), kick return defense (17.03) and passes they've have intercepted (8). They're third in passing offense (249.0) and tackles for loss allowed (5.2), and fourth in rushing defense (147.9), net punting (37.93), interceptions (9), turnover margin (+0.30) and turnovers gained (17).