Peanut butter and jelly. Chips and salsa. Milk and cereal.
These are all common food combinations that are widely consumed because they taste better together.
Sure, a peanut butter sandwich might be tasty, and some devour cereal without milk, but none of these American staples are the same without their coupling counterpart.
Just like peanut butter and jelly must work together to create the greatest level of tastiness, the offensive and defensive units in football must also be on the same page to achieve the maximum level of success, which is undoubtedly measured in wins.
If the offensive and defensive ingredients fail to mix well, a season may go spoiled.
At 3-7 overall and 2-5 in Big Sky play, Portland State knows this firsthand. The Vikings have struggled this entire season to get their offense and defense to play well simultaneously.
Some games it is the defense that performs wonderfully and then other times it is the offense that racks up gobs of yards and points.
This was the case in Saturday’s 49-32 loss to Montana State, except during this game the units took turns basking in the spotlight on the day.
The Portland State offense struggled to 71 total yards in the first half while the defense excelled with multiple takeaways. Then, the units played a game of role reversal in the second half, with the offense garnering 176 yards and the defense giving up 28 points without a takeaway.
“We have shown on both sides of the ball that we can play,” said sophomore quarterback Drew Hubel. “It is just a matter of playing to that level every game.”
Hubel mentioned that there have been few times this season that the Vikings have been able to put it all together, citing their 47-36 victory over Eastern Washington and 36-13 win over Idaho State as prime examples.
Head coach Jerry Glanville is not certain why his offensive and defensive units have routinely peeked at different times, however, he knows that in order to stockpile the victories, Portland State must get the entire team performing a high level at once.
“Both sides play well in spurts,” Glanville said. “It would be great to see the spurts go on at the same time.” In Glanville’s mind, what was especially detrimental for the Vikings on Saturday is the fact that when the defense created turnovers, the offense was unable to capitalize.
Portland State had two first-half interceptions–one for senior safety Aaron Dickson and the other for freshman cornerback Deshawn Shead–but was able to turn those takeaways into just three points.
“What makes the game work is when you steal it, you score,” Glanville said. “We’ve been doing the opposite.”
Hubel echoed Glanville’s sentiment, specifically citing senior Danny Urrego’s field goal following Dickson’s interception on the first drive of the game for Montana State.
“That’s frustrating,” Hubel said. “We know we can score a lot and shouldn’t have to depend on Danny to get us the points. Too many drives have ended like that and on third down.”
Against the Bobcats, Portland State successfully converted on four of 15 third-downs, a 27 percent success rate. Through 10 games this season, the Vikings are last in the Big Sky in converting on third down at just over 32 percent.
But it seems Hubel is on to something, because in the two games he cited as one as ones where both units played well–wins over Eastern Washington and Idaho State–the Vikings’ converted on 42 percent of third downs compared to a 23.5 percent average in the eight other games.
Aside from the low third-down conversion rate, Glanville said that three letters made the matchup with Montana State especially difficult: COD.
Now COD has nothing to do with marine animals but instead stands for “change of direction,” which Glanville said it was apparent the Vikings were lacking on Saturday.
Senior running back Demetrius Crawford scotched Portland State for 187 rushing yards, two touchdowns and a nearly seven yards per carry average.
Glanville was impressed with Crawford’s elusiveness and ability to switch directions on a dime, and attributed much of the Bobcats’ success to the fact that his defense had trouble brining him down.
“Their change of direction is better than ours,” Glanville said following the game. “That makes for a long day.”