Grizzlies maul Northern Iowa at home, 48-10

Kyle Sample, Correspondent

MISSOULA, Mont. -- When Jarred Herring caught a pass on a crossing route from Northern Iowa quarterback Tirrell Rennie and ran down the UNI sideline untouched into the end zone giving the Panthers a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter, things from the UNI perspective looked good.

Amazing how fast things change.

Baffled by Montana's run game and unable to sustain drives on the offensive end, Northern Iowa found themselves in a 28-10 hole by the time the game reached halftime. Other than a promising drive in the latter part of the third quarter, UNI never regained its footing or scored any more points and lost to Montana 48-10.

Of the Grizzlies' 246 first half yards, 176 came via the ground and came from a slew of backs. Quarterback Jordan Johnson scrambled for 57 yards; running back Peter Nguyen ran for 47; Jordan Canada had 32 and Dan Moore rumbled for 30. Johnson, Nguyen and Canada each had touchdowns.

UNI's only touchdown drive of the game started at their own 45-yard line and put fear in the 23,049 attendees at Washington-Grizzly stadium on a cold, clear, artificial/full moon lit night. On first down, Rennie hit Darion Howard for 14-yards to the Montana 42. Rennie then scrambled for 6 yards, then again for 9 yards before the scoring pass of 27-yards to Herring.

“We started scheming and running bunch sets trying to get away from the corners and have them lose us as we got across the field,” Herring said. “I kinda ran a pick route across the middle and I was able to get open.”

That's when the Griz started getting serious, outscoring UNI 48-3 the rest of the way.

As the gap in the score grew wider, the Montana blitzes became more frequent and the UNI offense became more inadequate. Other than a 63-yard run up the middle then down the Panther sideline by freshman running back David Johnson that led to a Tyler Sievertsen 21-yard field goal midway through the second quarter, Montana's defense yielded no further big plays while pressuring UNI quarterbacks Rennie and Jared Lanpher into three interceptions, one of which was returned by Montana defensive back Donny Lisowski 35-yards that pushed the Montana lead to 48-10 with 8:55 left in the 4

^th

quarter.

“They've got two good corners and they came after him a bunch,” UNI coach Mark Farley said. “The plan was unfolding, you know, on target midway through the second quarter even. Then your crowd really makes a difference because the crowd was just steady. That was my concern coming in here because once you start momentum, it's hard to stop it.  Your crowd give them that ability to ignite that football team and then the defense feeds off of it. So I think your best defense is your crowd.”

Northern Iowa's defense, solid all season until last week, never solved the problem presented by Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson, who passed for 196-yards and three touchdowns while finding his way for 86 and a touchdown on the ground.

“He's a athlete; a great athlete,” UNI Ben Boothby said. “He came out there and ran all over us, all over the parking lot. That was one of the things we were trying to keep from happening before this game. We didn't play to the best of our ability today.”

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