Errors pile up for UNI football in home-opening loss to Weber State

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa couldn’t stay out of its own way in a 34-17 home-opening loss to ninth-ranked Weber State Saturday at the UNI-Dome.

A forgettable stat sheet included three lost fumbles, three interceptions, five sacks of Panthers quarterback Theo Day and six costly penalties. A mountain of errors that proved too much to overcome.

“You can’t hide (six) turnovers. Plain and simple,” UNI coach Mark Farley said. “It was the big plays (given up) on defense. Then, of course, the (six) turnovers signed our ticket.”

Despite its number of mistakes, No. 20 UNI kept itself with one score of the Wildcats (2-0) well into the fourth quarter.

The mistakes ultimately caught up with the Panthers, though, in the game’s final eight minutes.

Trailing 24-17 with 7:55 remaining Jack Burgess’ punt bounced and rolled on the turf and UNI’s Sam Schnee attempt to pick the ball up failed, leading to a Weber State recovery at the Panthers’ 23-yard line and a 43-yard Kyle Thompson field goal to go up by 10 with 5:55 remaining.

Six plays into the next drive, Day found running back Tye Edwards on a screen pass that went 57 yards for a touchdown, but was called back for pass interference on wide receiver Sergio Morancy.

One play later, on third-and-25, Day threw the second of his three interceptions and Wildcats running back Damon Bankston sealed the win with a 58-yard touchdown run to go up by 17 with 3:16 to play.

“The first half was a good half,” Farley said. “It was the interceptions. I still go back to the interceptions, the muffed punt. The things like that, you can’t overcome that.”

Day — who completed 23 of 41 passes for 312 yards and a touchdown — failed to establish a rhythm with the Panthers offense for the second straight game. After falling behind 14-10 in the second quarter, Day threw his first interception and lost his first of two fumbles on UNI’s first two drives of the second half.

Adding pressure to the senior quarterback was a struggling run game that produced just 72 yards on 21 carries between Edwards and Harrison Bey-Buie.

“Should’ve been able to run the ball, didn’t run the ball, we didn’t protect. Thus, you had interceptions on top of it,” Farley said. “We have not played well on offense the past two weeks. Can’t say we’ve played well on defense. The special teams was much better today. But at the same time, the muffed punt was our (big) error. To get back to winning, to get back to what we want to be, you just got to go back (to work).”

Meanwhile, the Panthers defense has also encountered an early-season gut check moment. Along with allowing Bankston’s game-sealing touchdown run, Weber State got behind UNI’s secondary with two of quarterback Kylan Weisser’s 11 completions going for 77 and 38 yards.

“It was definitely a lesson learned,” UNI safety Edwin Dearman said. “As a team I feel like we’re going to be good. As a group we have to take pride in what we do. Everybody is going to make mistakes within this game, but we’ve got to be able to keep building off those mistakes. It’s about staying poised.”

Now 0-2, UNI already faces a precarious path to playoff contention with the second-toughest schedule in the FCS. The Panthers play at Idaho State (0-2) at 5 p.m. next Saturday (ESPN+).