Image courtesy of @UMassFootball (Twitter)
Well, at least it wasn’t a blowout.
Just a couple weeks ago, Northern Illinois took down Notre Dame in South Bend. Meanwhile, last week, UMass couldn’t hold a lead for 40 seconds against Miami of Ohio. So, not much was expected of the Minutemen heading out to play an NIU team that was looking to move over .500 on the season.
Well, the Minutemen actually led 13-7 at the half, but NIU was too much to handle in the second half and pulled away late.
The biggest bright spot for UMass in this one was the performance of wide receiver T.Y. Harding, who had four catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Jakobie Keeney-James also had four grabs for 87 yards and CJ Hester ran 15 times for 71 yards. Taisun Phommachanh went 15-30 with 263 yards and the two TD’s to Harding.
UMass drops to 1-5 with top-10 Missouri – who got blown out by Texas A&M – coming to town next weekend.
“I thought our guys showed up ready, willing and able and competed hard,” said Don Brown. “Second half kind of did not do a good job defending the run defensively. Not consistent enough on offense.”
Just two plays into the game Phommachanh fumbled on a four yard run and NIU recovered at the Minuteman 15. On the next snap, the Huskies were up 7-0 on a TD pass from Ethan Hampton to Brock Lampe. Just four plays later, UMass tied the game on a 58 yard TD grab from Harding.
UMass picked off Hampton in the end zone a few moments later, but couldn’t do anything with it. After trading punts, the Minutemen went up 10-7 on a 27 yard field goal from Jacob Lurie. UMass forced a turnover on downs on NIU’s next possession, but quickly went three-and-out. The Huskies continued trying to hand UMass opportunities with a fumble that was recovered by Donovan Dyson at the Minuteman 30.
A 10-play march ensued, but UMass had to settle for another Lurie field goal instead of going for it on 4th-&-1 from the NIU nine yard line.
A 22 yard touchdown run early in the third quarter for NIU’s Jaylen Poe made it a 13-13 game. UMass put together drives of 11 plays and six plays on its next two possessions, but turned it over on downs at the Huskies’ 25 and 10 in the fourth quarter. Sandwiched in between those two turnover on downs sequences was a Poe TD run that made it 20-13 with 14:12 remaining. With 5:29 left in the game, Gavin Williams rumbled in from a yard out to make it 27-13.
Harding caught a 16 yard TD pass with 3:16 to go, but a Hampton field goal just ahead of the two minute warning capped the scoring. The Minutemen allowed NIU to go 9-11 on third down in the game while going 5-14. UMass also gave up a whopping 367 yards rushing and 402 yards of offense.
“When you look at us at the half, you feel pretty good about where you’re at and what you’ve done and where you’re going, Brown added. “Then, third quarter, it’s almost like the start of the game. It’s like we had to start over again and that was a little disappointing. I exhausted everything I had in the playbook.
“We’re trying, but we weren’t where we needed to be, that’s for sure.”