By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Sycamores had them on the ropes, but the four-time defending national champions of North Dakota State proved why they've had such great success recently in a hard-fought 28-14 loss to the Bison at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Indiana State (4-3, 2-2 MVFC) gave NDSU (5-2, 3-1 MVFC) everything it had, but the highly disciplined and consistent Bison held onto the ball for an absurd 39 minutes and 31 seconds (23:06 of which came in the second half) and were able to stymie an explosive Sycamore offense to just 201 yards – the fewest by an ISU squad since the second round of the FCS Playoffs last season (178, vs. Chattanooga).

“Disappointing loss for the Sycamores today,” said ISU head coach Mike Sanford. “I felt like we played hard, I thought we competed hard. We had an opportunity knocking on the door right there after we scored on Matt Adam's long touchdown in the third quarter."

That play – an 81-yard scamper by Adam early in the third quarter -- did indeed seem to give the Sycamores a jolt of momentum. The Bison jumped out to a 14-0 lead behind new starting quarterback Easton Stick (9-of-20, 126 yards, 1TD, 1 INT; 17 rushes, 124 yards, 2 TD), who was subbing in place of injured NFL-caliber QB Carson Wentz. But, the Sycamore defense held tough long enough for Adam (10-of-25, 86 yards, 1 TD; 8 rushes, 75 yards, 1 TD) to find tight end Andrew Main in the endzone with 10 seconds left to play in the first half to cut NDSU's lead to 14-7.

The Sycamore defense – which allowed a season-low 126 passing yards – held tough yet again on NDSU's first drive of the second half, which led into the exhilarating 81-yard run by Adam on ISU's second play of the ensuing drive to tie the game 14-14. The play is the longest offensively for the Sycamores this season, and trails only Travis Starks' 100-yard interception return against Southeast Missouri as the longest overall this season.

“We were right there and I thought we were going to go after this game and attack this thing and put it away, and we weren't able to stop them,” Sanford said.

What followed was what NDSU does best: chew the clock. The final two Bison touchdowns of the game came in the third quarter and on a combined scoring drive of 19 plays, 134 yards and nine minutes – which was helped by some timely Sycamore penalties down the stretch that kept several drives alive.

“Those were unnecessary penalties that came back to haunt us today,” Sanford said. “We did a good job with that last week, we were bad at it two weeks ago and it reared its ugly head again today. We've got to improve in that area.”

Aside from Adam's big run, the Sycamore offense was uncharacteristically quiet against NDSU this afternoon – much of which can be attributed to going up against the 20th-ranked defense in the FCS.

“They're a good defense, but I think we're better than what we played today,” Sanford said. “I have to give them credit, but we're a better football team than we played today.”

Conversely, the Bison offense wasn't overtly impressive behind the new signal caller Stick, but they were efficient and racked up 243 rushing yards on a Sycamore defense that stuffed the ninth-best rushing offense in Southern Illinois last week to only 127 yards. In fact, Stick is only the second 100-yard rusher ISU has allowed all season after he collected 124 on the ground today – an individual season-high for ISU opponents.

There were several bright spots for the Sycamores, though. Punter Osborn Umeh had a career day and was instrumental in keeping the Sycamores in the game up until the end. Umeh booted a season-high 11 punts for 509 yards – an average of 46.3, nearly eight yards longer than his season average entering today. Umeh also had a long of 56, two pins inside the 20 and a season-high three punts 50 yards or longer.

Umeh's performance is even more impressive when compared to NDSU punter Ben LeCompte, an NFL-caliber punter who averaged 47.7 per punt today and had a long of 60.

“I thought Ozzie Umeh played his best game,” Sanford said. “I think you saw two big-time punters out there today. It was a field position battle. He kept us alive in a lot of situations.”

On defense, ISU had three in double-digit tackles for the second consecutive week. Junior linebacker Jameer Thurman set a season-high with 12 total stops (seven solo); sophomore linebacker Katrell Moss had a huge day with 11 total tackles (seven solo) and a forced fumble and fumble recovery on the same play; junior safety Marcus Gray again proved his worth as the injured Mark Sewall's replacement, notching 11 total tackles (five solo); and junior nickel defensive back Lonnell Brown Jr. hauled in his first interception of the season, making it five of seven games this season that the Sycamore defense has forced multiple turnovers.

However, the Sycamore defense was again without All-American linebacker Connor Underwood, who was nursing a hamstring injury. Underwood was originally injured during the Southeast Missouri game at home on Sept. 19, which forced him out of games at Missouri State (Oct. 3) and South Dakota State (Oct. 10). Underwood played last week against Southern Illinois, but left the game after tweaking it again. He was officially a gametime decision heading into today's matchup against NDSU.

“We tried during the course of the week and we tried right up until the game, but we just made a decision with the doctors and the trainers and Connor that it wasn't in his best interest to play,” Sanford said. “He will play, I just don't know when. Our expectation is that he'll be able to play against Illinois State.”

Speaking of, the road for the Sycamores gets no easier. After playing the four-time defending national champions this week, ISU will square off against 2014 national runners-up Illinois State next Saturday (Oct. 31) in Normal, Ill.

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