DeKALB – An offensive revival was not enough to grant a victory over the defending MAC champions as NIU football (1-4, 0-1 MAC) fell to the University of Toledo (4-1, 2-0 MAC) 35-33 Saturday.
For the first time this season, NIU scored more than 30 points and amassed a total of 444 yards from scrimmage.
“We got some receivers making plays,” redshirt senior quarterback Rocky Lombardi said. “We had (redshirt freshman wide receiver) Jalen Johnson make unbelievable catch on the goal line for a touchdown. We were absolutely thrilled. We’re seeing zones really well. (Senior wide receiver) Kacper (Rutkiewicz) and (redshirt junior wide receiver) Trayvon (Rudolph) are obviously great players, so the passing game is looking great. The run game has been looking better too, AB (junior running back Antario Brown) is running on the ball a lot better than he has so far this year.”
OFFENSE PUTS ON A SHOW
Following his benching in favor of redshirt sophomore quarterback Ethan Hampton against Tulsa last Saturday, Lombardi had a bounce-back performance on Saturday.
Lombardi had his best performance of the year, completing 21 out of 31 passes for 258 yards, throwing two touchdown passes and adding another score as a rusher.
“I felt great today. Obviously, we’d like to come away with a win there,” Lombardi said. “It’s unfortunate, but I am happy to see the production we’ve had. Obviously, it hasn’t been great so far this year, but to come out and put up that kind of performance on a good Toledo defense – they’re one of the better defenses in the MAC – so it did feel a little good.”
NIU showcased its rushing game for the second week in a row, spearheaded by Brown. The Huskies collectively rushed for 186 yards, with 152 of those yards credited to Brown’s efforts.
“Thought that he went hard,” Hammock said. “I thought he got that spark, and he was engaged in the game. We have to continue to find ways to get him involved in the game plan, and the line did a great job of creating some separation.”
DEFENSE GETS HUMBLED
The Huskie defense displayed vulnerability as they suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the Toledo offense. NIU’s defense conceded a total of 542 yards and allowed five touchdowns in the game.
Despite coming away with a scoop and score in the third quarter to cut the Toledo lead to three points, the Huskies’ defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed.
“I think they have tremendous players,” Hammock said. “They always got playmakers, and you have to give them credit, they made plays. And you know we got to go back, and we had to go back to the basics of how to tackle, how we get our head across and do different things, but we can get people down.”
In spite of a rough showing by the defense, junior safety Nate Valcarcel believed that his unit rallied during the late stages of the game.
“I think in the fourth quarter we came in as one motion as a defense, and then we got a couple of great stops at the end to put our offense in a position to score,” Valcarcel said.
While the defense struggled in its own right, special team inefficiencies put the NIU defense in a precarious position. Toledo junior running back Jacquez Stuart averaged 29.8 yards on kickoff returns to post a total of 119 yards on four returns.
“You got to keep on the details, and then we got to play better on special teams,” Hammock said. “So we got a lot to learn from this game. We will continue to get better, and we got to keep fighting.”
UP NEXT
NIU will conclude its two-game road trip with a tilt against the University of Akron at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at InfoCision Stadium. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, and live stats will be available via SideArmStats.
