Bengals Fall to No. 24 Portland State, 34-14

PHOTO GALLERY

Pocatello, Idaho- The Idaho State football team fell to No. 24 Portland State 34-14 Saturday afternoon in Holt Arena.
 
Michael Sanders was 20-for-39 for 177 yards and two touchdowns. 
 
Hagen Graves caught three passes for 24 yards one touchdown.  His touchdown came in the opening drive of game to put the Bengals up 7-0. Josh Cook led in receiving with four receptions and 75 yards and one touchdown.  Madison Mangum tallied three receptions for 34 yards and KW Williams caught three passes for 19 yards.
 
Xavier Finney had 23 carries for 87 yards followed by Jakori Ford with 7 carries for 27 rushing yards.

Portland State tallied 342 total yards while holding the Bengals to 242.

Jake Pettit led the defense in tackles with 13 followed by Hayden Stout with 11 and Tyler Kuder with 10 and 2.5 tackles for loss.  Kurt Karstetter had an interception.

After Graves  touchdown with 9:54 left in the first quarter, Portland State scored the next 24 points to take a 24-7 lead with 13:55 left in the first half.

The Bengals final touchdown of the game came when Cook caught a 48-yard pass from Sanders with 1:15 remaining in the half.

PSU added a touchdown a third and fourth quarter.

Idaho State plays at Boise State on Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on CBS College Sports.

Head Coach Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes

Opening Statement:
It was a great win for Portland State. They came on the road in the Big Sky Conference to open their conference season with a win. They've gone 2-0 on the road to open the year; that's a lot of mental toughness. I hope you learned a lesson because that was an exquisite, extreme example of how you have to be mentally tough, so congratulations to Portland State.

On what ISU struggled with offensively:
Well, you can't bobble snaps, you can't throw the ball late, you can't have the running back go the wrong way, you can't lose your left tackle early in the game, you can't lose your poise…it was a great opening drive, and after that we should have gone outside and practiced.

On what changed after the opening drive:
They just were tougher than we were. Period. Flat across the board. It sounds trite, and it sounds like a coaching cliché but they were way more mentally tough than we were. They deserved to win and they did. Period. We didn't play like we were excited to play at home. We didn't play tough at home. We didn't play the phases of our kicking game the way we needed to at home. You snap the ball over the punter's head and the defense went on and held them. Wow, that was awesome. Yet, in the meantime, what happened on those first three drives when they had the possession the whole time? We played too spotty both on offense and defense and our kicking game was a disaster. Kickoff return, we snapped the ball over the punter's head…it's just some second-game issues that we'll get cleared up.

On why the passing game struggled:
I don't really have an answer for you, other than to say that we didn't play great at quarterback and we didn't play super at receiver either. It was a combination of everything. All facets of that we're not good, we're not sharp. We act like we're playing Black Hills State again. Obviously Portland State, who beat Washington State, is a little bit of a different test. We didn't have rhythm, we threw the ball poorly, we through the ball errantly, and we threw the ball right. Josh Cook dropped an early pass and it set the tone for us, which meant that we were biting our nails on every pass and catch. We have a backup running back in the ball game and he goes the wrong way. So, anyway, they beat us. We didn't deserve to win. A great job by their coaching staff; I give them all the credit.

On why he thinks QB Michael Sanders struggled:
Oh, I'd say he struggled. He'll play a lot better. He needed to have a game like this against quality opposition. He got a quarter-and-a-half of work in against Black Hills State, and I knew this would be a first game for him. So, let's consider this the opener.

On how concerned he is going forward about the offensive line:
Not a bit. Our offensive line is OK; they played OK. Not great but OK.

On if there are any other positives to take away from the loss:
At times we played well offensively and at times we played really well defensively, but we didn't play the whole time like we're capable of playing. That's the mystery of coaching. In game two, that's great. I'd rather have that happen in game two than in game nine or game ten. We'll be able to put it all together. This will be a good building block for us because we will show them how they can play. So, we'll show them the positives and correct the negatives and move on.

On if Portland State did anything different after the half:
No. They just outplayed us. It's simple. Did we do anything different after halftime? No. We just didn't play well. I'm not making excuses. We just got outplayed. Flat out. Play one to play 144. We made some plays inside of those 144 plays, but not nearly enough to keep the game close to give ourselves a chance at the end. We missed tackles. We reached in and grabbed on defense. We didn't force them into turnovers. We couldn't get off the field defensively, and then offensively we couldn't generate first downs. We went to sleep after our opening drive. We went to sleep after that opening touchdown, which was a brilliant drive. We're capable of playing that way all of the time.

Notes
- Today's game captains were Erik Collins, Christian Diehm, Xavier Finney and Kurt Karstetter.
- Today was the first time two ranked teams played at Holt Arena since Nov. 8, 2003. In that game No. 20 NAU beat No. 22 ISU 46-31.
- Xavier Finney's 87 yards rushing moved him into third place, passing Merril Hoge's 2,712 yards. Finney now has 2,799 yards on 568 carries. He is two carries away from passing Alfredo Anderson and moving into third place.
- Kurt Karstetter has his first-career interception.
- Josh Cook's 48-yard touchdown reception was the longest play of first two games of the season.