MOSCOW — Scoring drives that ended in field goals instead of touchdowns.

A pass that was nearly caught in the end zone for a potential game-winning TD.

An inconsistent offense that couldn’t complement a defense that slowed down a high-powered offense.

It all resulted in a damaging loss for the Idaho Vandals, who fell 21-16 to the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in Sun Belt football play Saturday on homecoming before an announced crowd of 14,198 at the Kibbie Dome.

“We didn’t get the job done,” said Cade Coffey, a redshirt freshman punter/kicker from Lakeland High. “It kinda hurts, because we should have won that game.”

Idaho (2-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) held the Ragin’ Cajuns (2-3, 1-1) scoreless for the final 27:50, but could not overcome an 11-point deficit.

“It’s a heartbreaker,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “It’s a game you had a chance to win, and you didn’t make enough plays. Offensively we didn’t execute well enough, didn’t play well enough. Cade Coffey had an unbelievable game. I thought our defense played their hearts out.”

Coffey was 3 for 3 on field goals, including a career-long 47 yarder. Coffey also averaged 52.3 yards on seven punts, including a career long of 64 yards.

Idaho struck first, scoring a touchdown less than seven minutes into the game, but Louisiana outscored the Vandals 21-3 over the next 32:26, including a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half to take a 21-10 lead. After two second-half field goals by Coffey, Idaho had a chance to take the lead with less than two minutes remaining. Alfonso Onunwor was unable to pull in a contested catch in the end zone.

“It was that close to pulling it out, like we did at South Alabama,” Petrino said. “But we’ve got to play better early, so we’re not putting ourselves in that situation all of the time.”

Idaho’s defense recorded seven sacks, its most in a single game since 1999. Leonard Hazewood had 3 1/2 sacks. The seven sacks are tied for sixth most in a game at the FBS level this season and match the season high in the Sun Belt Conference.

Louisiana entered the game with the third-best rushing offense in the Sun Belt, averaging 203 yards per game. The Vandals held the Ragin’ Cajuns to a season-low 84 yards on the ground, also the fewest allowed by Idaho this season. Idaho also struggled to get in an offensive rhythm as the Vandals were held to 279 total yards and converted just 5 of 17 third downs.

“We’re heartbroken,” Idaho linebacker Tony Lashley said. “We were pretty confident after the bye week going into that game. It’s just hard taking a loss like that when you’ve worked so hard. You don’t want to make yourself believe that a team like that worked harder than you at the end of the day.”

Leading 21-16, the Ragin’ Cajuns missed a long field goal with 4:54 to play and the Vandals marched from their 32 to the Louisiana 30 before throwing two incompletions when they needed 3 yards. Trey Ragas had gains of 11 and 13 yards among his four carries to help run out the final 1:47.

It’s a hard one to take,” Petrino said. “It’s on me. I’m the one who needs to make sure the whole team’s ready to go, make sure they execute better.”

Idaho quarterback Matt Linehan finished the game 13 for 28 for 149 yards, while moving into sole possession of first place on Idaho’s all-time completions list. Linehan has completed 814 passes in his career. Linehan came into the game tied with John Friesz, the former Coeur d’Alene High standout, with 801 completions.

La-Lafayette 7 7 7 0 — 21

Idaho 7 3 3 3 — 16

First Quarter

IDA—Ungerer 1 run (Coffey kick), 8:49

ULL—Ray 3 run (Artigue kick), 2:05

Second Quarter

ULL—Ragas 1 run (Artigue kick), 9:19

IDA—FG Coffey 26, 1:41

Third Quarter

ULL—Bradley 45 pass from Nunez (Artigue kick), 12:50

IDA—FG Coffey 37, 6:23

Fourth Quarter

IDA—FG Coffey 46, 11:22

A—14,198.

ULL IDA

First downs 22 13

Rushes-yards 39-84 39-130

Passing 213 149

Comp-Att-Int 19-28-1 13-28-0

Return Yards 93 30

Punts-Avg. 7-44.0 7-46.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 6-32 6-60

Time of Possession 30:05 29:55

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Louisiana-Lafayette, Ragas 17-78, Hoggins 4-20, E.Mitchell 5-14, Ray 1-3, (Team) 1-(minus 2), J.Davis 2-(minus 4), Nunez 9-(minus 25). Idaho, Duckworth 14-62, Saunders 14-60, Ma.Linehan 10-7, Ungerer 1-1.

PASSING—Louisiana-Lafayette, Ray 0-1-0-0, Nunez 18-24-1-213, J.Davis 1-3-0-0. Idaho, Ma.Linehan 13-28-0-149.

RECEIVING—Louisiana-Lafayette, Bradley 5-93, Malone 5-80, Jacquet 3-22, Ragas 2-7, Rogers 1-9, K.Barnes 1-6, E.Mitchell 1-0, Jackson 1-(minus 4). Idaho, Sannon 4-58, Onunwor 4-50, Saunders 2-21, Ungerer 1-12, Boston 1-5, Duckworth 1-3.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—Louisiana-Lafayette, Artigue 48.