Two interceptions by Idaho's John Rust in Weber State territory - or close to it - and a mixed center/quarterback exchange that went for a fumble lost at the Weber 19-yard line made the third quarter miserable for the Wildcats and life easy for the Vandals.
John Friesz went on to pass for four touchdowns and Idaho ground down Weber 46-33 at Wildcat Stadium Saturday night."We sure self-destructed in the third quarter," said Weber Coach Dave Arslanian, now 0-3 after the loss to his best friend, Idaho Coach and Weber grad John L. Smith.
"Stupidity," he said about the three turnovers on consecutive Weber offensives to start the third quarter.
Weber led 19-14 after a strange first half that saw scores like 2-0 and 8-5 for the Wildcats.
Arslanian noted some missed opportunities to score in the first half. A Weber interception two plays into the game by Reid Leland produced only a failed field goal - the first collegiate attempt by Brent Chuhaniuk, who added placekicking to his punting for this game. He was good on his second try after a center snap sailed over Idaho's punter for a Weber safety at 11:20 of the first quarter.
Idaho scored a touchdown in five plays after the first interception of the second half - second of the game for Weber quarterback Ryan Schmidt. It occurred on the Idaho 48, and Friesz threw a 31-yard TD pass to Kasey Dunn for Idaho's first lead of the game.
Two Weber plays later, Schmidt and center Keith Chambers missed an exchange and Idaho recovered the fumble at the Weber 19 and scored following a holding penalty on a 25-yard pass to Scott Dahlquist, and Idaho was ahead by 10, 29-19.
On the next Weber possession, Rust was again hit in the chest by a Schmidt pass, which he obligingly picked off at the Weber 40 and returned to the 38.
"I just happened to be in the right place," said Rust. The interceptions were his first two. "Pretty sweet," he said.
This time, Idaho failed to score, but Friesz and the Vandals were on their game by then.
"We just told our guys to come out and do what we were doing, only do it right," said Smith of his halftime speech. "The only reason they're in the game is we're screwing up," he told Idaho.
Idaho had nullified one score on a clipping penalty and had failed to score on a field goal at the end of the first half.
"They had us on the ropes," Smith admitted.
"We didn't change anything," he said. "We just started covering people and looking for our jams," said Smith.
Arslanian said the interceptions and missed exchange shouldn't have happened, but he also said Schmidt, a junior in his third start, didn't lose poise. "The look I saw in his eye was not frustration or wonderment, it was, `We've got to get 'em next time,"' Arslanian said.
Defensively, Weber wasn't able to pressure Friesz, known as the best QB in the Big Sky and maybe better than that. Friesz threw for 389 yards, with a long of 67, and scattered his throws among seven receivers. Dunn had two TDs, Dahlquist one and Dave Jackson one.
Five of the receivers had pass receptions of 25 yards or longer.
"He had too much time. You can't give him that much time, no matter how good your defensive backs are," said Arslanian, who has good defensive backs.
After the Weber turnovers, Idaho went to work protecting its lead - adding to it even - on the ground, gaining 193 yards rushing after a first-half total of 41. "We thought we could run it," said Smith. "It was a big part of our game plan."
And it served to fatigue the Wildcat defense as the game went on. "It had to wear on them," Smith said.
Statistically, the running game was Idaho's edge. Friesz only outthrew Weber 389-367, but it outdid the 'Cats 196-44 on the ground.
Following the game, the two coaches who'd played together at Weber for Arslanian's father, Sark, parted as friends.
"We're a little superstitious," said Smith. "We didn't wish each other good luck before the game, but after, you've got to wish your best friend good luck."