UNI football’s blowout loss to No. 1 South Dakota State ‘a thousand deaths in a thousand different ways’

CEDAR FALLS — Top-ranked South Dakota State cruised past Northern Iowa, 41-3, Saturday evening at the UNI-Dome.

Any chance of an upset from the 18th-ranked Panthers (2-3, 0-1 MVFC) all but vanished by halftime after losing two fumbles, throwing an interception and having a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown.

“It was pathetic — the fumble, the two (interceptions) and the punt block — no excuse,” UNI Coach Mark Farley said. “We didn’t get it done and we didn’t play very well. We played terrible.”

Before the meltdown, UNI had a briefly encouraging start by forcing a three-and-out on the Jackrabbits’ first possession. Then, on its own opening drive, UNI began with a 14-yard completion to tight end Layne Pryor and an 11-yard run by Tye Edwards. But Edwards fumbled on first-and-10 at the SDSU 48, giving way to the first seven of 17 SDSU points scored off turnovers in the half.

UNI called timeout trailing 10-0 in the second quarter amid indecision on whether to go for it on fourth-and-6 at the Jackrabbits’ 36. The Panthers ultimately decided to punt and had it blocked and returned 49 yards by Noah Thompson for a touchdown.

“I’m looking at it and we’re stopping them on defense,” Farley said. “It was too long for the field goal, so I’m going ‘OK, let’s pin them and get off the field because we’d been playing on our end of the field the whole first quarter. So, let’s (flip) it. Let’s pin them inside the 5 and then get the ball back around (midfield) and score.

“So that’s why I called timeout to make sure that’s what I wanted to do instead of go for it and give them good field position.”

A bad situation quickly became worse on the second play of UNI’s next drive when Max Baloun sacked Aidan Dunne and forced a fumble, giving the Jackrabbits (4-1, 1-0) the ball at the Panthers’ 9. Just two plays later, SDSU backup quarterback Chase Mason ran for a 6-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 24-0.

UNI’s first points finally came with a 40-yard Caden Palmer field goal with 1:25 remaining in the second quarter, but enough time was left for the Jackrabbits to answer with a field goal of their own before halftime.

Dunne threw his second interception on the Panthers’ first drive of the second half, prompting a replacement from Matthew Schecklman. Schecklman’s fortunes were no better than Dunne’s, though, as he suffered two sacks as the offense went scoreless in his three drives.

SDSU’s Mark Gronowski finished with a game-high 223 yards passing, completing 16 of 22 attempts and throwing for three touchdowns. Meanwhile, Dunne finished 8-of-15 for 113 yards and two interceptions, while Schecklman was 9-for-16 for 67 yards.

“The only positive is it only cost you one (loss),” Farley said. “Because it was like going through a hundred of them. I’ve been through a lot of games, but never one like that. It just feels (like) you died a thousand deaths in a thousand different ways. The upside is it only cost you one, unless you let it feed to others and that’s where you got to break the momentum and break the tide and move forward.”

UNI travels to fourth-ranked South Dakota (4-1) next Saturday.