Oregonian writer Ian's Ruder's breakdown

The first thing everyone notices at preseason football scrimmages is "who is ahead" in execution between the offensive and defensive units. After the Portland State Vikings ran 80 plays on Saturday morning at Stott Community Field, most bystanders felt it was the defense.

"It is exactly what we wanted to have," said second-year Coach Nigel Burton. "The three things we want to make sure we get done this season is improve our run defense, improve the amount of takeaways and limit the big play. We definitely did the run defense today. It has been awesome with takeaways so far this fall as well."

Over the course of the scrimmage, the Vikings had 30 running plays for 70 yards, 25 of which came on one carry from freshman Shaquille Richard. Richard totaled 11 carries for 39 yards. The defense had 11 tackles for loss on running plays.

In his first real action since the 2009 season, senior quarterback Drew Hubel completed 5-15 passes. The percentage was low but he made some big plays, and drew a couple of pass interference calls on downfield plays.

During a first-and-goal series, Hubel hit Justin Monahan on a touchdown pass on third-and-goal from the 15. At the end of practice, he made back-to-back completions covering 65 yards. The first was a 44-yard strike to junior Nevin Lewis, followed by a 21-yard touchdown to Monahan.

"We saw the ability for these big, fast guys running out here to make plays in the passing game," said Burton. Gray shirt freshman Roston Tatum also had a 22-yard catch-and-run on a pass from Justin Engstrom.

On defense, the Vikings forced two fumbles, but did not recover either. The "d" also came up with a safety when the offense worked on a "backed-up" series, starting at the three-yard line. Defensive end Carl Sommer had an early sack of Hubel, but the biggest play came from redshirt freshman linebacker Corey Crowder, who intercepted an Engstrom pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown.

Both the offense and defense made numerous celebrations after plays big and small - to the point where it was kind of humorous. But, Burton was okay with it.

"The game is played with emotion. And for a while (in early practice) the guys weren't having as much fun. It felt like a job, so our thing is bringing the kids' passion back and understanding how much work it takes to be great. Have fun, relish the moment and you probably will find your self playing that much harder."

The scrimmage completed week one of practice for the Vikings. PSU returns to the field for doubles on Monday. Burton looked ahead to week two: "The step forward is installing the rest of the offense and defense and start polishing it, finding ways to be more efficient. And really improving in special teams."