UNI football deals with same season-long struggles in loss to Illinois State

CEDAR FALLS — Too many of Northern Iowa’s season-long struggles were present Saturday afternoon in a 31-9 loss to No. 17 Illinois State at the UNI-Dome.

A 10-3 Redbirds lead at halftime could have been a 14-10 lead for the Panthers as two of their drives on offense featured dropped, would-be touchdown passes. Instead, UNI (2-8, 0-6 MVFC) netted three points from the two drives that covered 116 yards in 19 plays.

Prior to the drops, the Panthers offense — which had shown improvement the past two weeks — gained just one first down and 36 yards on its first three drives.

“I thought (we) got in the red zone and probably didn’t put ourselves in good enough position in the red zone to do some things,” UNI coach Mark Farley said. “You get frustrated a little bit with do you put it in with power or do you put it in with finesse? And sometimes you’ve got to put it in with power.”

UNI’s defense continued to struggle to get off the field on third — and fourth — down as Illinois State (7-3, 4-2) converted six of eight third downs in the second half and nine of 15 in the game.

Four of those conversions came during a 21 play, 86-yard drive to open the second half that was capped by a 3-yard Wenkers Wright touchdown run on fourth-and-goal.

“You try to solve something that isn’t getting solved and that gets frustrating,” Farley said of his defense’s third-down struggles. “It’s obvious to see, (so) you think it’d be obvious to fix, but there’s probably more to it than just creating a defense or something like that to fill a gap.”

Trailing 17-6 late in the third quarter, UNI’s next two drives reached the Illinois State 8 and 25, but both ended in field goals. Meanwhile, the Redbirds added to their lead and ultimately sealed the win with two 75-yard touchdown drives of five and seven plays, respectively, making their only possession of the second half that didn’t finish in the end zone the last of the game.

“We’ve just got to get off the field on third down,” UNI linebacker Ben Belken said. “We’ve just got to get off the field when it's third-and-long (and) third-and-medium and quit giving up big plays.”

UNI quarterback Matthew Schecklman finished 15-of-29 passing with 174 yards and no touchdowns and was sacked four times. Schecklman and running backs Amauri Pesek-Hickson and Tye Edwards gained 61, 62 and 65 yards on the ground, respectively.

With its losing streak now having reached a program-record eight games, Pesek-Hickson said it’s important UNI keeps perspective to maintain a competitive edge.

“First of all, I think we all came out with the right mindset,” Pesek-Hickson said. “This season is not going how we planned it to go, but we come in and we fight every single day. It’s just adversity. This game of football teaches you a nice little story about life.”

UNI returns to action next Saturday at Youngstown State (3-8, 2-5) at 11 a.m.