There’s a football saying that goes something to the effect of, teams who often settle for field goals often settle for losses.

Last week, Idaho took the opening kickoff and drove down to the Troy 4-yard line, before settling for a field goal.

On the next play following the kickoff, Idaho recovered a fumble at the Troy 21. But the Vandals lost four yards on three plays, and — once again — settled for a field goal.

Troy answered with a touchdown for a 7-6 lead.

On the next drive, Idaho marched to the Troy 46, then threw an incomplete pass on fourth and 2. Troy drove for a TD and a 14-6 lead, and cruised home to a 34-13 Sun Belt Conference win at the Kibbie Dome.

Whatever momentum the Vandals (2-3, 0-1 Sun Belt), who play at Louisiana-Monroe (1-3, 0-1) on Saturday, may have generated early against Troy was diminished by the lack of touchdowns. Idaho coach Paul Petrino said his team lost a little bit of its fight in the middle two quarters, and by the time Idaho got it back, it was too late.

“The first 24 plays, offensively, we did a good job,” Petrino said. “We moved the ball well, we did some good things ... we’ve just got to come up with touchdowns. A couple times we had guys reach out and grab you ... but you can’t worry about that, you’ve got to run through that stuff, you’ve got to get their hands off of you, and you’ve got to make the plays. Both the first drive, when we settled for the field goal, and the second drive, when we settled for a field goal, and when we got stopped on fourth and 2 ... those drives all ended in that situation. We’ve got to do a better job of getting their hands off of us, and go make the plays.”

Third-down blues: Idaho was 2 of 13 on third down against Troy. For the season, the Vandals are 20 of 71 (28.2 percent) on third down, which ranks 122nd out of 128 FBS teams.

“And we practice that harder than I ever have in my career,” Petrino said of converting third downs. “We’ve just got to execute. When you go back and watch it, it’s even more frustrating, because you have a chance ... it’s there. Again, it just comes down to winning one-on-one matchups, and everybody executing their job.

Trent (Cowan, a tight end) got us a couple third downs, did a good job on those, and on the other ones, we’ve got to make sure we execute better ... and then it just comes down to winning. A lot of times, offensive football is about matchups, and when you get those matchups, you’ve got to win the matchups, especially when you feel like you’re going to one of your best players.”