Negative feedback — Idaho stumbles at Weber; first-round playoff bye now in jeopardy

From wire and news services and local reports

OGDEN, Utah — The Idaho Vandals entered their final two football games of the season with thoughts of winning out, earning a top-eight seed and a first-round bye in the FCS playoffs.

But, after stumbling on Saturday in a 31-29 loss to Weber State before 8,741 at Stewart Stadium, the Vandals (7-3, 5-2 Big Sky), the Vandals still figure to be in the playoffs, — but they might need to beat Idaho State next week at home, just to be sure.

“I think this game was just feedback; we’re not there yet, man,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “We have to get better to be a conference championship team in all three phases. And coaching is a big part of that; we have to coach better.”

Idaho lost the turnover battle 2-0, with lost fumbles by running back Nick Romano, starting for the injured Anthony Woods, and receiver Jermaine Jackson.

Weber State (5-5, 3-4) sacked Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy three times, and the Wildcats outgained the Vandals 139-72 on the ground.

“We were outplayed in all three phases,” Eck said. “We had breakdowns on offense, defense and special teams. I’ve got to do a better job of getting us to play better. Credit to Weber, credit to coach (Mickey) Mental, they’ve had some adversity, but they’ve figured it out.”

Idaho jumped out to a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter, on a 32-yard field goal by Ricardo Chavez and a 1-yard run by Romano, who finished with 84 yards on 22 carries.

Chavez matched his career long with a 53-yard field goal late in the first half to boost Idaho’s lead to 13-7.

“A little bitter feeling because we didn’t get the results that we wanted,” Chavez said. “It feels good (tying his career-long kick), but at the same time, wishing we could have come out with the ‘W.’”

Weber State took a 14-13 halftime lead on Kris Jackson’s 3-yard run with 47 seconds left in the half.

Richie Munoz had a 3-yard scoring toss to Jacob Sharp to push the Wildcats' lead to 21-13 early in the third quarter.

Romano’s second TD run of the day, followed by a two-point run by McCoy, tied it at 21 with 6:03 left in the quarter.

Weber State took a 28-21 lead into the final quarter after Haze Hadley's 71-yard punt return set up a 13-yard scoring run by Adrian Cormier. 

After Idaho went for it on fourth down deep in its own territory and turned the ball over, Kyle Thompson kicked a 27-yard field goal with 2:24 remaining to increase the Wildcats’ lead to 31-21.

McCoy had a 3-yard touchdown pass to Hayden Hatten with 12 seconds left to play. McCoy hit Jake Cox for the two-point conversion but the onside kick failed, and Weber ran out the clock.

Munoz completed 10 of 18 passes for 152 yards for the Wildcats. Jackson carried 16 times for 84 yards.

“Credit to them, they outplayed us certainly. And that’s my fault,” Eck said. “They have some good pass rushers; they had Gevani under duress. The biggest thing was they stopped the running game. And they did a good job moving the ball, moving the chains.”

McCoy totaled 346 yards on 33-of-51 passing for the Vandals, tying his career high in passing yards. He passed Brian Brennan and Steve Olson to move to the No. 9 spot on the Idaho all-time career passing yards list, surpassing 5,000 career yards. He now sits at 5,336 career yards. McCoy also moved into a tie with Brennan for ninth on the Vandal all-time career passing touchdown list with 42.

Hatten hauled in 14 passes for 175 yards. He surpassed the 3,000-yard mark in career receptions, now sitting at 3,129. His touchdown was his 31st career receiving touchdown. 

Xe'Ree Alexander tallied a team-high nine tackles and three tackles for loss. Marcus Harris had two pass breakups and and now has 33 career passes defended, just one behind Charlie Oliver's Idaho record of 34.

Eck said during the week the Vandals had hope that Woods would play, but he didn’t progress as much as they would have liked. Eck said he is “optimistic” Woods will be ready for ISU, “but no guarantees.”

The Bengals’ game suddenly became a bigger one than Idaho envisioned at the beginning of the week.

“I told the team, we have a lot to play for (next week),” Eck said. “If we beat Idaho State, we’re definitely a playoff team. If you do that, you might need some upsets to happen, but you have an outside chance of being an 8 seed if we play really well next week and have a decisive win.”

However …

“We have a ton of areas we need to improve on,” he added. “We’re not guaranteed anything. We can’t end the season on two straight losses, and put it in the committee’s hands.”

Idaho    3    10    8    8    —    29

Weber St.    0    14    14    3    —    31

First quarter

Idaho — FG Chavez 32, 9:35

Second quarter

Idaho — Romano 1 run (Chavez kick), 10:08

Weber — Jackson 1 run (Thompson kick), 6:19

Idaho — FG Chavez 53, 2:35

Weber — Jackson 3 run (Thompson kick), :47

Third quarter

Weber — Sharp 3 pass from Munoz (Thompson kick), 9:53

Idaho — Romano 4 run (McCoy run), 6:03

Weber — Cormier13 run (Thompson kick), :46

Fourth quarter

Weber — FG 27 Thompson, 2:24

Idaho — Hatten 3 pass from McCoy (Cox pass from McCoy), :12

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Idaho, Romano 22-84, Jackson 1-10, McCoy 4-(minus 22). Weber, Jackson 16-84, Cormier 12-47, Munoz 3-8, Butler 2-0.

PASSING — Idaho, McCoy 33-51-0-346. Weber, Munoz, 10-18-0-152.

RECEIVING — Idaho, Hatten 14-175, Jackson 6-30, Moore 3-39, Ivy 3-37, Traynor 2-19, Cox 2-13, Romano 2-7, Layne 1-26. Weber, Sharp 3-28, Hurry 2-46, Thrower 1-37, Cormier 1-27, Hadley 1-7, Nead 1-4, Jackson 1-3.