RUSTON, La. — In a paint-melting, pregame speech, Hawai'i football coach Greg McMackin swung around a power chain in the locker room, knocking over cups, to emphasize the importance of last night's game.

It was the most energy — and damage — the Warriors caused all night.

The Warriors lost the game — 27-6, to host Louisiana Tech — and, possibly their starting quarterback.

Greg Alexander was on crutches after the Warriors' Western Athletic Conference opener, with what UH officials announced was a sprained left knee.

By definition, all sprains involve some degree of tearing. How much? "I have no idea right now," said Alexander, who will undergo an MRI on Sunday.

Late in the third quarter, with UH down 24-6, Alexander scrambled away from a heavy pass rush when he was knocked down by linebacker Adrien Cole near the UH sideline.

"It was a clean hit," Alexander acknowledged. "The guy hit me pretty good. ... My foot just got caught on the turf."

Alexander said he heard a "pop."

"I was just trying to get a little extra yards," he said. "I probably shouldn't have done that."

It was injury added to insult for the Warriors, who were playing their third consecutive road game. While both teams are 2-2, they are hardly even.

"There are no excuses in football, and there's no whining in football," McMackin said, "but I tell you what, we couldn't get it going."

The rare Wednesday night was scheduled as part of the WAC's arrangement with ESPN. It was the only college football game played last night.

"This was a nationwide game," McMackin said. "Every sports enthusiast in the country saw us, and I really feel bad. I feel bad people saw us play this way. This wasn't us. This (wasn't) Hawai'i football."

The Warriors were admittedly distracted by news of the tsunami in American Samoa. Defensive tackle Rocky Savaiigaea said he was told his cousin was killed.

Defensive end Fetaiagogo Fonoti, who made his 2009 debut after missing the first three games with an injured left kneecap, had not heard from his mother and brother who were visiting American Samoa.

"What we should have done," Savaiigaea said, "is come out and play even harder and give the people of Samoa something to smile about. We didn't get it done."

The Warriors struggled in all three phases.

Their offense was held without a touchdown for the first time since 2004, a span of 62 games.

Their first drive stalled at the Tech 19, and they settled for a Scott Enos field goal. On their final drive of the first half, they had a first-and-goal at the 2. But their freshly implemented power-I attack netted 1 yard in two carries, and Alexander's overthrow led to another field goal.

"We need to come up with seven points, one way or another," quarterback coach Nick Rolovich said. "We need touchdowns, not field goals."

They received neither late in the fourth quarter when slotback Greg Salas lost control of the football at the doorstep of the end zone.

"I tried to reach out, tried to make sure I got (the football) over (the goal line), and I kind of hit somebody, and it popped out," Salas said. "I think it came out before (reaching the goal line). It was a fumble."

The Bulldogs alternated between a man-free zone and a five-player blitz. The heart of the plan was to cause an irregular beat.

The Bulldogs made sure the zone kept the Warrior receivers from boosting their post-catch yards.

"They did a good job of closing in on us," right wideout Royce Pollard said. "They were good at predicting where we would go next."

The Bulldogs' linebacker blitzes proved to be a distraction for the defensive linemen's bull rushes. The Warriors surrendered as many sacks last night — seven — as they did in their first three games combined.

"You have good games and you have bad games," left guard Ray Hisatake said. "Unfortunately, this was a bad game. ... We have to do a better job of staying on our blocks longer."

Slotback Kealoha Pilares said: "It was hard out there, I guess, not getting the ball off. Now we don't have Greg (Alexander), it's even worse. We have to suck it up and get better. I mean, what else can we do?"

On defense, the Warriors missed assignments, tackles and, too often, Bulldog running back Daniel Porter.

Porter entered in a slump, averaging 3.3 yards per carry — about 2 yards below last season's average. Last night, he ran for 160 yards and two touchdowns. In all, the Bulldogs rolled up 352 rushing yards, or 6.2 yards per carry. In their first three games, they gained 292 yards, an average of 3.1 yards per rush.

Most of their rushes were on lead-zone blocks.

"We knew what they were going to do," said Blaze Soares, who moved to middle linebacker for this game. "The coaches gave us the perfect game plan to beat them. Every play we knew. We just couldn't stop them."

UH assistant coach Dave Aranda said: "There were a lot of missed assignments, a lot of missed reads, a lot of mistakes on our part. We, very rarely, had 11 guys on defense playing the defense (we called). We would have eight, nine, seven. A lot of the issues were not guys getting knocked back or pushed-off-the-ball issues. A lot were gap issues."

When the gap — the running lane — moved to the other side because of, say, trap blocks, too often a defender would not follow quickly enough.

"A lot of it was being stuck on blocks," Aranda said.

McMackin also noted that defenders sometimes would get a clear shot at a ball-carrier, but would try to make a diving tackle. Against the 5-foot-9, 190-pound Porter, who is strong and fast (sub-4.5 seconds over 40 yards), there is little room for error.

"He has a low center of gravity," UH linebacker Corey Paredes said of Porter. "You have to wrap up and grab him. He's easily hidden behind the linemen, and when you finally grab a hold of him, he's short and powerful. You have to make sure you grab his jersey, or he'll keep going."

Porter, in turn, credited his linemen.

"A lot of big holes," Porter said. "I trusted the line, and the line trusted me to give me the rock."

But McMackin said: "The problem against the run (was) the worst exhibition of tackling I've ever seen since I've coached in football. I mean, we were diving. We were not tackling the way we teach. We looked like a tired football team. We didn't have any energy."

Soares said: "To me, you can do all of your talking in the (locker) room, but where it counts is on the field. We didn't show up. Maybe a few players did. Other than that, we had no energy. It wasn't the type of defense we are. I don't know if we were in shock, or jet-lagged, or what it was. There are no excuses. We didn't show up, and that's an embarrassment."

Visit Tsai's blog at http://warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com.