DeKALB – After trailing 24-3 at halftime and 37-11 during the third quarter, NIU football (4-5, 3-2 MAC) was unable to complete a miraculous second half comeback, falling 37-31 to the Central Michigan University Chippewas (5-4, 3-2 MAC).
With the loss, the Huskies dropped to third place in the MAC West, right behind the second-place Chippewas. Both NIU and Central Michigan sit two full games behind the first place University of Toledo Rockets.
HORRID FIRST HALF
The Chippewas ran wild on the Huskies, rushing for 331 yards and 4 touchdowns in Tuesday’s loss. CMU’s junior running back Marion Lukes ran for 202 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Jase Bauer added 106 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 20 carries.
“I wouldn’t say it (stopping Central Michigan’s offense) was hard, guys were just missing tackles,” said NIU senior defensive end Raishein Thomas.
The NIU defense struggled in the first half, surrendering 262 yards of offense to the Chippewas. The defense allowed more points in the first half than they had in the entirety of each of their three consecutive wins over the University of Akron, Ohio University and Eastern Michigan University.
“We gave the game away in the first half,” said NIU head football coach Thomas Hammock. “That’s unfortunate because in the second half we tried to fight back, we were down 21 points at halftime. We hurt ourselves, and we have to play with more discipline on and off the field. That starts with me, and we have to get that corrected.”
Similar to the defense, the offense struggled in the first half. The Huskies missed two first half field goals and had one drive stall out in the red zone.
“We drove the ball well, we just couldn’t convert in the red zone and missed a couple field goal kicks with the weather and a lot of factors there,” said redshirt senior quarterback Rocky Lombardi. “Realistically, on a nice day, you have nine points going into half, which isn’t good, but it’s certainly better than three.”
SECOND HALF SUCCESS
The Huskies flipped the script on the Chippewas in the second half with a balanced offense over the final 30 minutes, passing for 205 yards and running for 142 yards.
Redshirt junior wide receiver Trayvon Rudolph caught 8 passes for a season-high 172 receiving yards and a touchdown. Rudolph’s touchdown was the start of 20 unanswered Huskie points.
“If you need me, if you see me, I can make it happen,” Rudolph said. “But at the same time, I was just trying to do what I can for the team and get us a dub.”
Lombardi turned in one of his most impressive outings of the season, completing 20 of his 35 passes for 298 yards and 3 touchdowns. Lombardi also threw one interception.
“We had quite a few explosive plays,” Lombardi said. “Trayvon (Rudolph) did a tremendous job getting a couple (explosive plays), and then (junior wide receiver) Grayson Barnes made some plays. We started to run the ball a little bit better, everything started to come together (in the second half).”
Rudolph hauled in a 72-yard touchdown catch, junior running back Antario Brown broke loose for a 61-yard touchdown run, and Barnes added a 22-yard touchdown reception to highlight the Huskies big second half.
As dominant as the Huskies were in the second half, it was too little, too late.
“If we had played like that for two halves, it might have not been close, but we did not,” Hammock said. “That’s something we have to live with and move forward from as a team. It’s just disappointing that we dug ourselves a hole that didn’t need to be dug.”
LOOKING FORWARD
The Huskies’ next game will be against Ball State University at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Huskie Stadium. Live stats will be available via SideArm Stats.
“We just have to play like ourselves,” Lombardi said. “I think we come out too tight. We’re really a good team, one of the better, if not the best team in this conference in my opinion. We just have to go out and play like it and have that confidence.”
