There’s no reason to overreact following the No. 7 Idaho football team’s 31-17 loss to the Pac-12’s California.

The Vandals handled the Golden Bears for the better part of 20 minutes before the larger, more physical Bears came back and scored 31 unanswered points while generating three takeaways.

This is the third time in Idaho’s last four Football Bowl Subdivision matchups that it had a lead or was tied at halftime and still lost.

In all three defeats, the Vandals played well enough to win but ended up getting worn out by the bigger bodies, which forced them into mistakes. And while there’s no reason Idaho should hit the panic button, it needs to iron out the kinks quickly because its conference and home opener against No. 4 Sacramento State won’t be a walk in the park.

The Hornets did what the Vandals couldn’t do on Saturday and notched a 30-23 win over their former coach Troy Taylor and Power Five opponent Stanford.

Sac State quarterback Kaiden Bennett earned the Big Sky offensive player of the week after passing for a career-high 279 yards while adding 100 yards on the ground.

Idaho coach Jason Eck noted during Monday’s news conference that the junior quarterback is a combination of the Hornets’ two quarterbacks from last year, Jake Dunniway and Asher O’Hara.

Sac State has called a lot of designed runs for the Sparks, Nev., native, three weeks into the season, which has made him its leading rusher, having 239 yards on 33 carries and four touchdowns.

A mobile quarterback is never a welcome sight for Idaho’s defense. The Vandals have never really been able to figure out quarterbacks with wheels.

In Idaho’s six losses over the last two seasons, it allowed a total of 324 rushing yards to quarterbacks, an average of 54 yards per game.

The Vandals’ most woeful performances last season against mobile quarterbacks came against Sac State and Southeastern Louisiana.

Idaho allowed O’Hara to run wild during their Oct. 29 matchup, as he ran 26 times for 139 yards.

In the Vandals’ 45-42 loss to the Lions in the first round of the FCS playoffs, quarterback Cephus Johnson accounted for 76 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

Idaho has already faced two quarterbacks who have above-average talent as runners, the first being Nevada quarterback Brendon Lewis, who tallied 39 yards on nine carries.

Cal quarterback Sam Jackson collected 61 rushing yards on nine attempts and a touchdown.

One of the Vandals’ weakest spots as a defense last year has seemed to leak into this year’s squad.

On the other side of the ball, the offensive line will need to be much improved by the time Saturday rolls around.

The front five have been Idaho’s worst group this season, and it hasn’t been particularly close.

The big boys allowed one sack and eight quarterback hurries against Cal.

The O-line also gave sophomore running back Anthony Woods limited wiggle room as he finished with 11 carries for 56 yards. It even got to the point where it appeared that Eck and offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner had completely abandoned the run game due to the offensive line’s performance.

After Woods’ electric 19-yard touchdown to put the Vandals in front 10-0, his night was pretty much over, receiving just four more carries for 16 yards the rest of the way.

The Palmdale, Calif., native is one of Idaho’s most dangerous players with the ball in his hands, as demonstrated by his highlight runs this season. But he’s had little to no holes to run through on routine plays.

Again, there’s no reason to push the panic button, and there are some positives — very clear ones at that. But if Idaho doesn’t fix its problems, most of which have lingered from last season, then it could be looking at mirroring its result from last year, not a better one.

Pixley may be contacted at (208) 848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @TreebTalks