Panthers searching for steady ground

CEDAR FALLS - When you play in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, a short memory is a requirement.

Coach Mark Farley and his No. 21 Panthers can't dwell on Saturday's 20-19 loss to No. 20 Indiana State for long, he said, or else they'll get stuck in the same rut they've been in for two years - where losses pile up and they're left out of the playoffs once again.

'I don't want the highs and lows, we just need a steady progression. Because if you get a high, you get a low. It comes with it,” Farley said. 'So you just want that steady progression moving forward. And we were doing that until this last week, and then that slow start was that setback. I would prefer a consistent movement instead of getting really high for one game, because I guarantee you'd be real low for one coming up if you get that high. That's what we're missing is the consistency, more than anything.”

The slow start Farley mentioned came in the form of a 14-0 lead for the Sycamores in the first 12 minutes of the game.

Wind played a factor all game, and the Panthers were going against it in the first quarter. And though Farley wouldn't pin the offense's struggles starting the game on the weather alone, he acknowledged it certainly played a roll. But more than anything, Indiana State's tempo out of the gate - unmatched by UNI's offense, which only mustered 35 yards of total offense in the opening quarter - was what caught the Panthers.

'I didn't anticipate the slow start,” Farley said. 'One, they came out and tempoed up right away, and that was first team we played with that type of tempo.

'Then we didn't come out good enough on offense. Our first few series weren't good enough, and those were the series against the wind.”

Spotting the Sycamores 14 points came on plays linebacker Ronelle McNeil said came 'quicker than we expected.” The senior said the whole team was 'a little flat” to begin the game, but credited Indiana State's offensive game plan.

He doesn't anticipate coming out flat again, nor does Farley. The important thing in the short term, McNeil said, is to stay calm and stay the course.

'There's no panic whatsoever, but it is a sense of, ‘We can't let another game slip through our fingers like that again.' We've just got to go back to practice, and not start over, but get back in the right direction of where we need to go,” McNeil said. 'It's all about how you practice.

'I feel like in order to turn up another level, we're going to have to start that in practice. Now we're in league play, and as you saw, every little thing counts.”

McNeil added that remaining steady also means a reassurance of the mentality the defense is to take in the coming weeks.

For the Panthers, having the mental fortitude to make the plays needed - in the red zone, specifically, where UNI routinely settled for field goals Saturday - is the difference between being an also-ran and being a playoff team.

One play never decides a game, but one or two plays can be the catalyst to deciding a game. And until the Panthers make those plays, the wins won't come.

'You go back and look at what we could've done on one or two plays. Ultimately that's why you've got to play and make those plays. We didn't make a couple plays and gave them the opportunity to stick around,” Farley said. 'When you get that two possession lead, that three possession lead, then it's a different game you're calling. If you're always within a touchdown … you can't put them away, so you've always got the chance of an explosive play happening to you in the same regard as happening to them. That's where we had our chances and some of these setbacks. We had a chance to put people away, didn't do it, thus they hang around and make the plays.”

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