UNI football enters bye week with identifiable problems to address

CEDAR FALLS - The bye week is here and it's time for Northern Iowa to look in the mirror.

One week ago that upcoming look in the mirror didn't feel like it'd come with too many warts, but after a 24-21 road loss to Southern Utah on Saturday night, that's no longer the case.

'There are problems right now that we need to address,” UNI Coach Mark Farley said. 'Part of it is we've got to get (the players) so they're at practice all week long and not just showing up for the game.”

As Farley alluded to, injuries played a part in the dysfunction the offense experienced against Southern Utah. The Panthers didn't gain a single first down in the first quarter Saturday night. Not having any of their three running backs, or two starting tight ends, taking reps in practice leading up to the formidable Big Sky opponent cost the Panthers some production on game night. It most definitely didn't help what was a non-existent run game, which rushed 21 times for 25 yards (excluding quarterback Eli Dunne).

'I'm going to address the line of scrimmage. We have to improve our run game. Period,” Farley said. '... We have to address our kicking game. (Those are) probably the two things that need the most attention early in the week.”

While the run game issues have existed throughout the first three games of the season, the kicking issues didn't show up until Saturday. The Panthers were 2-of-5 on field goals against the Thunderbirds with misses of 25, 42, and 53 yards. Given the game's three-point margin of victory on Saturday it cropped up bad memories of a season ago when the Panthers special teams played a considerable part in five losses of six or fewer points. Losses that Farley spent a lot of time on in the offseason working to avoid.

Along with the placekicking and running game struggles came another, somewhat, new problem to fix from Saturday night's loss: the offensive line.

Not only has the offensive line struggled to get push in the running game, it also struggled in pass protection against Southern Utah. Dunne was hurried on a number of his dropbacks. The constant breakdown of the pocket caused two interceptions and led to four sacks of the Panther signal-caller.

'It surprised me (that the offensive line struggled). Best way to say it is I didn't think they could push us as much as they did. We lost that line,” Farley said. 'They were slanting, they were doing some things that they hadn't done previous, but it's still something that (we) should have been able to adapt to. So we'll just go and work on those things.”

While the Panthers will be spending the next 11 days working on themselves they've got an eye on what's ahead. That being a gauntlet of a Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule where five of their eight opponents are currently ranked in the top 25.

'And we still have to defensively prepare for the (conference) season because the types of team we play that are still coming down the road are very offensively talented. Much more so than even what we've played so far,” Farley said. 'I won't concentrate on the next game until we get these other things in line.”