MOSCOW, Idaho – A disappointed Paul Petrino was left to ponder his offense's sudden ineffectiveness Saturday afternoon as the Idaho Vandals fell 34-10 to South Alabama in a Sun Belt Conference game.

An offense which had been averaging 422 yards per game, could produce only 269. On the other side of the ball, a defense that had been giving up almost 508 per game, allowed 429 and nabbed two turnovers.

“Offensively,” he said as the Vandals dropped to 0-4, 0-2 as the Jaguars leveled their record at 2-2, 1-1, “they just whupped us. There's really no other way of putting it. They just got after us today.'

Yet, “I thought our defense made some huge improvement. They flew around and made some good plays and probably played good enough to win.”

South Alabama scored on a length-of-the-field drive late in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead then immediately upped it to 14-0 on Montell Garner's 59-yard return of a Matt Linehan interception. The Jaguars scored twice more but it was field goals instead of TDs to take a 20-0 halftime lead.

They increased it to 27-0 when quarterback Brandon Bridge found an opening on the third play of the  initial series of the second half to score on a 54-yard romp.

The Vandals finally scored on Austin Rehkow's 37-yard field goal, which capped a 17-play drive. Linehan hooked up with Joshua McCain to score the Vandals' lone touchdown – a 10-yarder with 6:25 left in the first.

Linehan connected on 62.5 percent of his throws (25 of 40) but was intercepted twice. He distributed his 239 yards among eight receivers with McCain again the leader (eight for 72). Richard Montgomery also had eight but went for 62 yards.

Too often, though, Linehan faced undue pressure.

“As a whole offense,” Petrino said, “it was not a good day. They just beat us. They out-executed us.”

Marc Millan led the defensive effort with 12 tackles (eight solo and four assists).

“We just have to get it where both sides play good together,” Petrino said. “We have to block better and run harder.”

Idaho travels to Texas State next weekend.