Northern Iowa coach praises Nebraska running back Dante Dowdell

But Panthers coach Mark Farley said Dante Dowdell caused most of the problems for his defense, especially in the first half that saw Nebraska jump out to a 21-3 lead.

“The running back was the troublemaker,” Farley said. “He was good, he was quick, he had better speed early.”

That said, Farley assessed his defense as “not good” but still took some positives from his FCS team’s clash against the 23rd-ranked Huskers, even though they gave up 423 yards in total offense.

“The toughness is there,” Farley said. “The pride is there. We just made some errors on defense, didn’t play the defense the way it’s supposed to be played in areas. We missed the sack that turned into a 90-yard bomb or whatever it was. It would have been a 10-15 yard loss if we could make the play.”

The bomb was just 59 yards, not 90. But the pass from Raiola to Jaylen Lloyd led to, one play later, Nebraska’s third touchdown of the first half.

Offensively, Farley was pleased with the way his team ran the ball, finishing the game with 139 yards rushing on 39 attempts, just three yards fewer than Nebraska in the running game.

“We felt we were as strong, as tough as they are,” he said. “We thought they were a little bit bigger in some areas. But we also felt we could expose some things. We’ve got two big backs. That makes a difference too, I’m walking away going, ‘We ran the ball well. We had more rushing yards than they did until that last drive. That’s statistics, but at the same time, it’s a really good defense. I thought that was their strength coming into the game.”

The Panthers got their only score of the game, a 31-yard first-quarter field goal after a 16-play, 62-yard drive that ate up 10 minutes on the clock. But Northern Iowa wasn’t able to put together another sustained drive in the last 45 minutes of the game.

In part, Farley said, that was because of penalties — Northern Iowa finished with nine penalties for 95 yards, including a couple of crucial holding calls that ended promising drives.

But quarterback Aidan Dunne, who left the game late after rolling an ankle, said Nebraska made some adjustments in the second quarter, and especially after halftime that put the squeeze on the Panther offense.

“They had had a great box, great front seven,” he said. “We found a lot of success running the ball that first time in a couple RPOs. They got great coaches. They adjusted, ran a lot of man on the perimeters, and made it harder on us in the box.”

Overall, Dunne said, he believes that Northern Iowa played well in front of 86,000 people in Memorial Stadium at night.

“I’ve never started an atmosphere like that, great stadium, great fans,” he said. “it was a great experience. I don’t think the scoreboard really reflected what went on out there, especially offensively. We’ve got a lot of film to watch, a lot of areas to improve, especially finishing, finishing drives. We can do that. I think we can be a great unit.”