This was the 6-foot-6, 231-pound senior’s second game with at least four touchdown passes.
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“Unfortunately we lost, but also appreciate that I respect this football team”, Farley said.
Shepherd’s 18-yard catch over two defenders in the back left corner of the end zone capped a 10-play, 79-yard drive after the Bison (4-1, 2-0 MVFC) took over with 2:30 to play trailing 28-24 after a UNI missed a field goal. “Tell me what they did wrong?”
“Our defense didn’t play well, that was evident in the second half”, Klieman said. “Because when you battle like that, you know… that was not frustrating”. Over and over, he said the loss could be analyzed, diced up and replayed hundreds of ways, but the fact is it was a great game in which the Bison made one more play than UNI did.
However, a fumble late in the game by Wentz put NDSU fans on edge, but Wentz was certain to steal the victory from the Panthers. The Panthers are 0-2 in the conference and 2-3 overall.
Northern Iowa erased its first deficit on a quick drive early in the fourth quarter.
UNI had a chance to seal its upset win when it stripped the ball from Bison quarterback Carson Wentz and recovered the loose ball on the Bison 46 with less than six minutes remaining of the game.
That is where the Bison could have taken over, but UNI refused to wilt. Two straight read-option runs went for 8 and then 28 yards.
Bailey rushed for 157 yards on 13 carries, all in the second half. “I made a couple mistakes early”.
Wentz threw 33 yards to Shepherd with 7:49 left to lead 24-21 but on the first play after the ensuing kickoff Northern Iowa’s Aaron Bailey broke loose for an 83-yard scoring run.
“I don’t think they changed anything, they just executed really well”, Klieman said of what UNI did with Bailey in the fourth quarter.
Fountain led the Panthers with four catches for 110 yards including a 67-yard TD catch from starter Sawyer Kollmorgen on the game’s opening drive.
With one-on-one coverage with C.J. Smith on the outside, Kollmorgen floated a ideal pass to Fountain, who had a step on Smith and out-raced him to the end zone.
UNI continued to hammer away at the Bison defense, extending its lead to 14-3 with 9:20 left in the half. He set a school record attempting 143 consecutive passes without an interception, and his 40 attempts against UNI were the most by a Bison quarterback since 2009.
Farley didn’t allow his players to be interviewed following the game and faced the firing squad of reporters by himself.
Tim Kilfoy picked off NDSU quarterback Carson Wentz in the second quarter, returning it for 60 yards, setting up UNI’s second touchdown of the game.
NDSU answered that touchdown with an 11-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Jeff Illies hauling in a 2-yard touchdown pass from Wentz with 3:53 left to halftime. “We don’t have to go back out there, do we?”
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“You all just saw a great football game between two very good football teams”.
