“This whole season has basically been [about] adversity,” sophomore backup quarterback Connor Kavanaugh said after the game.
Saturday was a long day for Kavanaugh, who got the nod for this week’s game after an injury kept starter Drew Hubel sidelined for the first time in his career.
Against a Northern Arizona team with the worst pass defense efficiency in the Big Sky Conference, Kavanaugh managed to complete only 46 percent of his passes for 116 yards. He also threw three interceptions to three different defenders.
“We keep making mistakes,” he said.
Leading to a 44-23 loss, the mistakes drop Portland State to 2-5 overall and 1-4 in conference, and raise Northern Arizona to 4-2 on the year and 3-1 in Big Sky play.
The offense never found a rhythm during the game and did not play to their strengths. At the end of the third quarter, the Vikings had only 71 passing yards. At the same point in the game, the team’s leading receiver, junior Ray Fry, had only four receptions for 35 yards.
The biggest hurdle for the Vikings’ offense was on third-down conversions. On 10 attempts, only two were made, and they came on separate drives in two different quarters.
Last week, when the offense stalled against Northern Colorado, the defense provided a jump-start with strong goal-line play and turnovers. This week, the offense had no such form of resuscitation.
The defense, too, was outpaced and embarrassed by the Lumberjacks. They did not force any turnovers, and when the Jacks fumbled three times, the Viks were unable to recover.
Six of the 12 Arizona possessions went for touchdowns, three of which saw the Jacks driving downfield for at least 70 yards.
The Viking secondary seems to be wearing down. Head coach Jerry Glanville may have deemed freshman cornerback Mike Williams a starter, but it is obvious he still has a lot to learn about Glanville’s defense.
Arizona quarterback Michael Herrick, who finished 21 of 34 for an impressive 254 yards, picked on Williams’ side of the field all day. He threw 62 percent of his completed passes there with good results.
The Jacks also had great success running the receiver screen. It’s a play that Glanville says his team sees every week, but inexplicably, they had no answer for it this time.
To their credit, the Vikings had a strong defensive showing immediately after halftime. On three consecutive Lumberjack possessions, they forced the Jacks to punt, a mark they had only been able to achieve once in the first half.
In the fourth quarter though, all progress seemed to be forgotten. In that quarter alone, the defense allowed 137 rushing yards, and even when the Jacks benched their starting running backs Alex Henderson and Giovanni Dixon, the Viks could not stop them.
“I’ve never been anywhere that we couldn’t stop the handoff,” Glanville said.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and there are a few things the Viks should take heart in after this game.
Kicker Zach Brown has been a bright spot on offense. Until the fourth quarter, he was the only Viking to score any points, connecting on field goals of 43, 31 and 35 yards. He also garnered an average of 67.2 yards per kickoff.
With his three field goals on Saturday, Brown has now made good on eight consecutive attempts and he leads the Big Sky with 12 this season. He currently sits just three shy of the school record for most field goals made in a season, set last year by Danny Urrego.
Sophomore linebacker Ryan Rau also stepped up to the plate for his team. He had 12 tackles, two of them for a loss and one of which was a sack for 6 yards.
Rau’s defensive play will be key for the Vikings in the last four games, as linebacker Erik Pedersen is likely to be out for the rest of the season after he suffered a broken left forearm late in the first quarter.
They may have struggled to get there, but during each trip the Vikings made into the red zone, they came away with points. Coming into this game, they had only converted for points inside the 20-yard line 78 percent of the time.
Another pleasant surprise for the Vikings was the play of third-string quarterback and junior transfer Justin Engstrom.
After Kavanaugh was benched for the last two series of the fourth quarter following his third pick, Engstrom proceeded to move the team down the field and throw the only passing touchdown for Portland. In his short time on the field, he went five of seven for 52 yards.
“I was happy to see what [Engstrom] could do,” Glanville said.
Brown was also determined to remain positive after the game.
“Things might not be going our way right now, but we can’t quit. We have to keep moving on and focus on the next thing,” he said.
Still, this loss will sting because it was a failure on all sides of the ball. Special teams even gave the Lumberjacks a safety on a bad punt snap.
When asked if he, like Kavanaugh, thought that the season was full of adversity, Glanville said that it “is a test. The whole deal is to stay together.”
The Vikings get a break from conference play this week as they host UC Davis Saturday at 1:05 p.m. at PGE Park.