Carifio: Plenty of bright spots in Maine game and season for Huskies, but also a lot of ‘buts’

Northern Illinois Huskies defensive end Ray Thomas prepares to bring down Maine Black Bears wide receiver Devin Young during their game Saturday, Sep. 25, 2021 in Huskie Stadium at NIU in DeKalb.

DeKALB – The NIU football team’s 42-14 win Saturday against Maine was impressive, with a couple of very big “buts.”

Which is apropos for the Huskies’ season, which has had some equally impressive moments but some even bigger buts.

Start with Saturday against Maine. The defense had its best game of the year, allowing only 290 yards in the game and 110 in the second half. But it came against a Football Championship Subdivision school.

The Huskies (2-2) allowed only 14 points, also a season low. But they gave up two long scoring drives, including a 99-yarder after punter Matt Ference pinned the Black Bears (1-3) at their own 1.

NIU never built a two-score lead until the second half but managed to score the last 27 points of the game.

Coach Thomas Hammock said he was impressed with the grit of his team, persevering and overcoming the miscues.

“We’re not perfect, but it’s us,” Hammock said. “And I like us.”

Maine scored on consecutive drives in the first half on drives of 99 and 71 yards. Take those drives out, and the Huskies allow only 120 yards of offense.

“If we take those two touchdown drives out, then you’re playing great defense,” Hammock said. “And one of them was a third-and-8, we jumped offsides, made it a third-and-3 and they picked up the first down. Those are things we can control, we can clean up as a defense to continue to play how we want to play.”

The defense came into the game allowing 113 points in the past two games, losses to Wyoming and Michigan. Obviously, 14 points allowed is a marked improvement. But again, it came against an FCS school.

So altough Maine had some success in the first half, NIU made some adjustments against the run in the second half. Maine averaged 5.8 yards a carry in the first half and 3.2 in the second half.

“We made some good adjustments to some of the bunch stuff they were running,” cornerback Jordan Gandy said. “I think that really helped us.”

There was plenty of good Saturday, but plenty of buts. And that’s true of the season, as well. NIU came back from 26 points down against Wyoming and led in the fourth quarter, but the defense couldn’t hold for one final drive. The team picked up a boneyard win at Georgia Tech to start the year but lost by 53 at Michigan. Quarterback Rocky Lombardi has made many impressive plays but also has five turnovers already.

One thing not up for debate is that a 2-2 start with this schedule after a winless 2020 is a big leap forward as the team enters Mid-American Conference play next week, hosting Eastern Michigan. No buts, that’s a good start to the year.

What MAC play holds is a mystery – I cannot lie. If this is the Huskies team that played the second half of the Wyoming and Maine games, then they’re in good shape of maybe finding a way to win four more games and become bowl eligible. But if it’s the first-half version of those teams, it may trend closer to last year’s record.

For whatever it is worth, Hammock is a believer that this is a good team, no ands, ifs or buts. He said he thinks the players understand that, as well.

“We have to get better. We have to play cleaner,” Hammock said. “I think our kids understand that. We have a good football team, and I want them to understand they are a good football team. We’ve played two undefeated teams and Georgia Tech. But for us to be the type of team we want to be, we have to continue to harp on the details and the discipline of our play.”

• Eddie Carifio is Daily Chronicle sports editor. Write to him at ecarifio@shawmedia.com.


Have a Question about this Daily Chronicle article?