UMass Football: Minutemen lose to Northern Illinois 34-20

UMass football head coach Don Brown looks on from the sideline during the Minutemen’s 34-20 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon in Dekalb, Illinois.

UMass football head coach Don Brown looks on from the sideline during the Minutemen’s 34-20 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon in Dekalb, Illinois. PHOTOS BY CHRIS TUCCI/UMASS ATHLETICS

UMass kicker Jacob Lurie boots through a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter during the Minutemen’s 34-20 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon in Dekalb, Illinois.

UMass kicker Jacob Lurie boots through a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter during the Minutemen’s 34-20 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon in Dekalb, Illinois. PHOTOS BY CHRIS TUCCI/UMASS ATHLETICS

By GARRETT COTE

Staff Writer

Published: 10-05-2024 6:25 PM

Don Brown essentially made the decision that he was fine with once again playing an opponent close and losing, as that was clear at the end of the first half with his UMass football team facing a 4th-and-1 inside the Northern Illinois 10-yard line.

The Minutemen had a timeout remaining with 10 seconds to go up 10-7, and instead of trusting his offense to find the end zone and go up two possessions, Brown elected to kick a field goal as 17-point underdogs on the road. UMass kicker Jacob Lurie booted the ball through the uprights, making it 13-7 at the half, but NIU headed to the locker room feeling like it had dodged a serious bullet. 

And the Huskies came out in the third quarter and made the Minutemen pay for their timid decision making, scoring on all four of their second half drives despite throwing the ball just one time. For the second straight week and fourth time this season, UMass (1-5) fell to a MAC opponent, this Saturday losing 34-20 to Northern Illinois on the road.

“I thought our guys showed up ready, willing and able and competed hard,” Brown said. “Second half, we did not do a good job defending the run. And we were not consistent enough on offense.”

When Huskies running back Antario Brown – unquestionably the best player on the team – left the game with an injury in the second quarter, it gave UMass a chance to stop the Northern Illinois rushing attack. But even without their top back, the Huskies came out in the second half and simply said, “we don’t think you can stop us.”

A mix of Gavin Williams (15 carries, 129 yards, touchdown) and Jaylen Poe (15 carries, 98 yards, two touchdowns) along with NIU’s offensive line, the Huskies handed it off on 35 of their 36 plays in the second half. The Minutemen had absolutely zero answer, even though they were well aware of what was coming.

“They did a good job running the counter to the weak side, but at the same time they used what they had available to them,” Brown said. “[Williams and Poe] did a good job.”

UMass overcame a slow start by scoring 13 unanswered points to take a 13-7 advantage into halftime. On the Minutemen’s second play from scrimmage, quarterback Taisun Phommachanh dropped the shotgun snap and NIU defensive end Jalonnie Williams fell on it at the UMass 15-yard line.

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The ensuing play resulted in a Huskies touchdown, where tight end Brock Lampe caught a pass from quarterback Ethan Hampton and walked into the end zone with no Minutemen defender in sight.

Phommachanh did respond with a 58-yard touchdown strike to T.Y. Harding to tie it up at seven apiece, and Isaiah Rutherford then picked off Hampton to give UMass the ball back. The defense stymied Northern Illinois in the opening 30 minutes, and the Huskies continued to try to get their pass game going in the first half before they completely abandoned it over the final two quarters.

“We settled in, made a couple of adjustments,” Brown said of his defense. “But the third quarter, we let the thing get away from us; made a couple of C-gap errors where we didn’t take care of the C gap, and we paid the price for it.”

With the game still locked at 7-7, UMass converted three 3rd-and-long situations with halfback draws to CJ Hester. The Minutemen set up shop inside the red zone, but ultimately faced a 4th-and-2 from the NIU 9-yard line. Brown chose to send Lurie out to give his team the lead, 10-7.

He made that same choice on a 4th-and-1 from the NIU 9-yard line to end the half. Altogether UMass had the ball inside the Huskies 25-yard line five times. One instance led to T.Y. Harding’s second touchdown grab late in the fourth quarter on a 4th-and-10 to make it 27-20, but outside of that the Minutemen scored six total points in those four other trips. It’s tough to win football games on the road when that’s the case.

In UMass’ previous four losses, Brown has made sure to overwhelm his team with positive takeaways after each defeat. That’s going to be a bit harder to do on Saturday.

The Minutemen surrendered 23 first downs to their 19, gave up nine 3rd-down conversions on 11 attempts (81 percent), gave up a whopping 367 yards on the ground and lost the time of possession battle – the one thing it had won in each game thus far – by over seven minutes.

It’ll be back to the drawing board once more, and UMass’ schedule isn’t getting any easier with a hungry Missouri team – which lost 41-10 to Texas A&M on Saturday – heading to Amherst next Saturday.

“When you look at us at the half, you feel pretty good about where you’re at, what you’ve done and where you’re going,” Brown said. “And then third quarter, it’s almost like the start of the game. It’s like we had to start over again, and that was disappointing. I exhausted everything I had in the playbook, so we’re trying. But we weren’t where we needed to be that’s for sure.”

Phommachanh threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions on 15-for-30 passing, CJ Hester had a strong day on the ground rushing for 71 yards on 15 attempts while Jakobie Keeney-James (four receptions, 87 yards) and Harding (four receptions, 85 yards, two scores) led the receiving corps.

Aside from stalling in the red zone several times, UMass’ offense had no trouble moving the ball on Saturday.