Little goes right for UNI after opening drive in 42-24 loss at Iowa State

AMES — Northern Iowa marched down the field with ease on its first drive Saturday night to the tune of eight plays for 75 yards. Eli Dunne connected with four different receivers, capping the scoring drive with an 18-yard touchdown strike to a tightly covered Isaiah Weston, and the capacity crowd at Jack Trice Stadium wondered what they were in for.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, that drive proved to be the brightest point of their first half as the Cyclones would win the game of adjustments and roll to a 42-24 win.

In the first quarter Willie Harvey intercepted Dunne and returned it for a touchdown after his pass to Jalen Rima bounced off the sophomore's hands. Two drives later Dunne was intercepted again. Running back J'Veyon Browning appeared to have a miscommunication with Dunne and it allowed Kamari Cotton-Moya to jump the route for another pick-six.

In the middle of the second quarter the Panthers appeared to be back on track offensively when Dunne found Weston for 32 yards down to the ISU 6-yard line, but the play was called back when guard Bryce Sweeney was flagged for being too far downfield — one of a number of penalties that seemed to come at the most inopportune times throughout the night — and Northern Iowa settled for a 43-yard Sam Drysdale field goal on the drive.

The UNI defense helped out their quarterback, forcing four Iowa State punts in the first half. However, at the 5:31 mark of the second quarter the Cyclones put together a nine-play, 64 yard scoring drive with a mixture of Park passes to Hakeem Butler, Trever Ryen, and Marchie Murdock, along with multiple tough runs by David Montgomery.

Holding a 21-10 lead at halftime the Cyclones picked up where they left off in the first half, putting together back-to-back scoring drives to extend their lead to 35-10 midway through the third quarter.

UNI mustered a methodical 10-play, 75 yard drive late in the third quarter, capped by an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jaylin James, but the writing was on the wall. The Cyclones offense had made adjustments that UNI's defense was unable to counter and they were able to move the ball well enough to eat clock and keep a comeback out of the question.

The Cyclones tacked on their final touchdown late when Park connected with Butler for a 9-yard score early in the fourth quarter. Dunne and the UNI offense came back with one more score of their own when Aaron Graham reeled in an 18-yard pass.

Before their home opener next week versus Cal Poly the Panthers will undoubtedly be looking at small details on offense that turned into big mistakes — and points — versus the Cyclones. Defensively they'll be looking for answers to a non-existent pass rush that produced zero sacks and just one quarterback hurry.