PULLMAN, Wash. - The University of Idaho's biggest problem in Saturday's 49-14 loss to No. 11 Washington State University, as coach Tom Cable saw it, was clear and simple.
The Vandals lost the battle of the line of scrimmage. On both sides of the ball.
"We were beaten soundly," Cable said after the Vandals dropped to 0-2 with No. 13 Oregon up next. "We got dominated on the line of scrimmage. Period. End of story.
"In Division I college football, particularly with who we're playing right now, you've got to play big up front and we just didn't do it."
Quarterback Brian Lindgren admitted early jitters made for a rough start for the Vandals, who fell behind 21-0 before senior receiver Josh Jelmberg pulled in a seven-yard scoring pass from Lindgren.
"We were, me particularly, kind of a little excited at the beginning of the game," said Lindgren, who bobbled the second snap from center, which led to a WSU fumble recovery and the Cougars' first TD of the game just 50 seconds after the opening kickoff.
"Offensively, we couldn't find a rhythm early."
Once the Vandals did find the beat, there were some positives - Jelmberg had his second successive 10-reception game, Lindgren threw for 267 yards, and junior cornerback Rod Bryant produced UI's first interception with a first-quarter theft of a Jason Gesser pass.
But, the line woes prevented the Vandals from establishing the all-too-important ground attack. Zach Gerstner was the UI leader but he toted the ball 14 times for just 34 yards. Malfred Shaw also totaled 34 but with Lindgren being sacked six times the grand total on the ground amounted to just 51 yards.
"That's the key to any offense," Cable said. "You've got to be able to run the football."
Once the early-game nervousness wore off, the Vandals did come up with some stops and closed to within 28-14 on Kevin O'Connell's two-yard TD reception with 4:25 left in the third quarter.
The Cougars, however, responded with the game-breaker when Gesser found Devard Darling open up the middle for a 41-yard scoring play on fourth-down-and-eight with 1:10 left in the third.
"That probably broke our back a little," Cable said.
Despite the loss, Cable and the players found a measure of solace in that they are improving while in the midst of a grueling pre-conference schedule.
"There are a lot of good things that happened today," Cable said. "The receivers made a bunch of big plays. They're doing what I think they're capable of. Special teams was solid. Secondary play was solid."
The sparkle in the special teams was provided by junior Cedric Thompson, who popped a 55-yard punt return and a total 72 yards on four kickoff returns.
