UNI Football Falls to Iowa, 38-14

Saturday, September 15

Iowa City, Iowa

6:30 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa

0-2

Iowa

3-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Northern Iowa

IOWA

UNI Football Falls to Iowa, 38-14

9/15/2018 11:25:00 PM | Football

Box Score

IOWA CITY, Iowa – UNI offense struggled to find a rhythm in the first half while big plays by the Panther defense were not enough to ebb the tide of the Iowa offense as the Hawkeyes built a 38-0 lead en route to a 38-14 win over the Panthers Saturday evening at Kinnick Stadium.

UNI held Iowa to a single touchdown in the first quarter, but the offense couldn't find a footing, racking up 16 yards of offense in the first quarter and four in the second quarter.

The UNI defense battled, picking up a pair of sacks in the first half, both from sophomore defensive tackle Jared Brinkman. A.J. Allen also picked up an interception as Iowa was driving with 29 seconds to play in the first half.

Iowa went into the locker room with a 21-0 lead and picked up right where they left off when they took the ball to start the second half.

The Hawkeyes added 17 more points in the third quarter before the Panthers found an offensive groove in the fourth.

Eli Dunne led a 14-play 75-yard drive to start the fourth quarter, capped by a four-yard touchdown pass to Briley Moore who made a tough catch in the back of the end zone.

Duncan Ferch picked off a pass from Iowa's Peyton Mansell with 7:39 left. The interception led to a six-play, 65-yard that ended with a five-yard touchdown pass from Dunne to Elias Nissen in the back of the end zone for the score.

Nissen caught the ball with an Iowa defender in close coverage and had to reach back to keep his feet in the end zone.

The two teams traded possessions before Iowa ran out the clock to end the game.

UNI falls to 0-2 on the year while Iowa is now 3-0 with wins against Northern Illinois and Iowa State.

SACKS
The Panthers tallied three sacks against the vaunted Iowa offensive line. Jared Brinkman tallied two with losses of 10 and seven yards. Rickey Neal Jr., last year's MVFC sack leader, tallied his first sack of the season which was also for seven yards. The Panthers notched seven tackles for loss in the game. The UNI O-line gave up just three TFLs in the game, all three were sacks, every rush from scrimmage was for positive yards.

A PAIR OF PICKS
A.J. Allen tallied his first interception since the Missouri State game of the 2016 season and the second of his career. Duncan Ferch notched his third career interception. His last one came against Iowa State in 2017. Both INTs were returned for 11 yards.

POSITIVE YARDS
The Panthers had 222 yards in the air which is the most that the highly-touted Iowa defense has given up this season.

QUARTERBACKS
Colton Howell started the game, but Eli Dunne came in during the second half and was effective. He went 18-28 for 200 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

QUOTE BY HEAD COACH MARK FARLEY ON ELI DUNNE
"I thought Eli did a super job, I'm very pleased with his performance and his execution, the way he accepted what happened (at Montana) and his calmness, I think he became a better quarterback today because of that. We'll see if that progresses to next week. Eli will start next week. I'm pleased with everything from him, especially and Iowa kid playing a game at the University of Iowa. I'm sure it was a blow to him personally (not to start), but I thought he handled it tremendously."

UP NEXT
The Panthers finally play at the UNI-Dome Saturday at 4 p.m. against Hampton (Va.). The Pirates did not play Saturday because of fears of Hurricane Florence at the coastal campus. Their schedule game against Tennessee State was canceled. There will be no makeup game. Hampton is 1-1 on the year after opening with a win against Shaw, a Division II school, before falling to Monmouth. The game is the Hall of Fame game.