Utah Defense Shuts Down Northern Illinois In Second Half

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The University of Utah won their second straight game of the 2019 season with a 35-17 win over Northern Illinois in their home opener.

After holding a 21-17 lead at halftime, due to a slow start by the offense and the defense allowing big plays, Utah’s defense stepped up in the second half.

Utah held NIU scoreless in the second half, while scoring 14 points to get them the comfortable win.

The Utes defense allowed the Huskies to 48 total yards in the third quarter and 21 yards in the fourth period, giving NIU just 69 yards in the second half.

2&0 BIG MOOD pic.twitter.com/c0O74mn10m

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 7, 2019

On the other side of the ball, Utah’s offense racked up 117 yards in just the third quarter and 52 yards in the fourth quarter for a total of 169 yards.

Other than limiting the Huskies offensive production, the Utes forced  one interception and a fumble, but was recovered by NIU and sacked the quarterback four times.

Utah was forced to play without star defensive tackle Leki Fotu who was out with an undisclosed injury.

Linebackers Francis Bernard and Devin Lloyd led the team in tackles with 12 coming from Bernard and 10 by Lloyd. Defensive end Bradlee Anae had three of the four sacks for Utah, with Lloyd recording the other. Utah also had six tackles-for-loss.

Anae was asked after the game of what changed in the second half for the defense.

“We were more pissed off. They scored on their first drive in our stadium and we were ticked off. We wanted to play harder as a unit,” Anae stated.

Offensive Improvement

Last week against BYU, Utah’s offense wasn’t very productive in the passing game, due to the Cougars defensive focus on forcing the Utes to run the ball. Quarterback Tyler Huntley recorded 106 total passing yards, while running back Zack Moss racked up 187 rushing yards.

Against NIU, Utah was more balanced with 193 rushing and 214 passing. Huntley completed 14 of his 19 pass attempts and threw one touchdown pass. Moss finished with 80 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground.

The wide receivers made a big impact for the Utes with Jaylen Dixon hauling in four catches for 46 yards and one touchdown, and Bryan Thompson added two receptions for 66 yards.

Their offensive line had to be tweaked due to injury. Center Orlando Umana and guard Johnny Maea both missed the game against NIU with injuries. The Utes started Darrin Paulo at left tackle with Braeden Daniels at left guard as usual, but right guard Paul Toala moved to center with usual right tackle starter Nick Ford moving over to right guard and backup Simi Moala getting the start at right tackle.

Up Next

The Utes improved to 2-0 on the season and will finish the non-conference portion of their schedule on Saturday, September 14 at 2:15 p.m. against Idaho State.

The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.