It appears NIU’s chances of winning the Big West are rolling into the sunset with the tumbleweeds. The shocking loss to the University of Southwestern Louisiana on Saturday put a serious damper on the Huskies’ hopes of a bowl bid.

And how fitting an analogy since tumbleweeds move by turning over and over and the Huskies lost because of turnovers.

“The thing is, our chances of winning the Big West are almost nil now,” said head coach Charlie Sadler. “But Southwestern Louisiana’s chances are almost nil too.”

That however doesn’t make the loss any easier. Especially knowing the key reason for losing was turnovers, and the Huskies had five of those, all in the second half, and USL turned two of them into touchdowns.

“Turnovers there in the second half is what sealed our fate as far as us coming up on the short end,” said Sadler.

The ball handling troubles actually began in the first half. On NIU’s first play from scrimmage quarterback Ron Reichert (11-of-27, 123 yards, three interceptions) fumbled a pitch to LeShon Johnson (28 carries, 173 yards and two TD’s) who recovered it for a loss of 16 yards.

That was the first of three fumbles in the first half, all of them recovered due to good bounces. Those fumble recoveries kept the Ragin‘ Cajuns from capitalizing and allowed the Huskies to enter the locker room at halftime down only 16-12.

The second half opened with Reichert leading the Huskies to USL’s 28 yard line. On a first-and-ten play however, Reichert’s pass was deflected and intercepted by linebacker Patrice Alexander. The Ragin’ Cajuns would return the favor by fumbling. Eric Lacy recovered for NIU and Johnson would later reach the endzone to give the Huskies a 19-16 lead.

“I threw some balls that I probably shouldn’t have,” said Reichert. “They (USL) made some good plays on them.”

On the Huskies’ next possession USL picked off another Reichert pass. The thief this time was Orlanda Thomas who leads the nation in interceptions and this one gave him eight on the season. Fortunately the defense made a strong stand again and the Cajuns were forced to punt, another good break for NIU.

The breaks would end there because the first play of the fourth quarter was the key to the loss. Reichert threw the fatal pass that gave the Cajuns the momentum.

He was intercepted by USL defensive back Tim Sensley who returned it 59 yards for a touchdown and USL went up 23-19.

Sadler knew the interception was coming as soon as the ball was thrown.

“I wish I had gone out there and caught it,” he said. “I saw it was about to happen and I was really hoping the defensive back would drop back.”

The turnovers continued when Steve Rodgers fumbled a punt return that the Cajuns recovered and later converted into seven more points.

The Huskies decided to give the ball away one more time. With 2:07 left in the game Reichert had another tossed another bad pitch which ended up in the arms of a USL defender.

By the time NIU got the ball back it was too late. There were only ten seconds left in the game and not nearly enough time to make up the 14 points.

The Huskies had fumbled their opportunity to take a commanding lead in the race for the Las Vegas Bowl.