Iowa State loses season opener to Northern Iowa

AMES ? Northern Iowa's David Johnson did everything a team could want from a running back.

On a steamy Midwest evening, Johnson tied a school record by scoring four touchdowns. He rushed for a career-high 199 yards and two scores. He added another 41 yards on four pass receptions and two more TDs.

He ran over, around and through defenders as the FCS Panthers opened their season with an impressive 28-20 victory over Iowa State on Saturday night.

And coach Mark Farley's reaction?

Nice game, big fella.

"That's a good performance," Farley deadpanned. "It would have been a great game if he had not fumbled."

Farley was only half serious, and besides, the fumble didn't really hurt.

"David Johnson is a great running back," he said. "That's what you get with David. He plays hard all the time, all the time. He's a special person, not just a special player."

Northern Iowa, seeking a return to the FCS playoffs after a rare losing record in 2012, jumped to a 21-7 lead and handed Iowa State its first season-opening loss in five seasons under coach Paul Rhoads. It was just the fifth victory for the Panthers in 28 games with the Cyclones, who are coming off two straight bowl appearances.

Iowa State drew to 21-20 on Cole Netten's third-quarter field goals of 23 and 38 yards, the first of his career. But Johnson caught a short pass from Sawyer Kollmorgen, slipped through three defenders and went 29 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter for an eight-point lead that held up.

Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 214-pound junior who showed both power and speed, piled up 125 yards on his first six carries, including scoring runs of 37 and 27 yards. He carried 23 times in all in topping his previous best of 149 yards last year.

"When David makes those big plays and is breaking the tackles, we were hoping he would just keep moving the chains. Then he breaks a big play," said linebacker Jake Farley, the coach's son. It takes a lot of stress off us when we were under pressure. That was big."

Kollmorgen, who was thrust into the starting job as a freshman last year, completed 14 of his first 15 passes and finished 21 of 28 for 218 yards, no interceptions and the two touchdowns to Johnson.

Tormenting Iowa State with passes on short underneath routes, Kollmorgen was so effective in the early going that the Cyclones did not break up a pass until freshman linebacker Luke Knott knocked one away with 1:32 left in the first half.

Iowa State's Sam Richardson, making his third career start, completed 22 of 32 passes for 242 yards and two TDs and added 74 yards rushing on 21 attempts.

But the defensive failures and inconsistency in the new pistol offense doomed the Cyclones in a game that drew a crowd of 56,800, which matched the largest ever at Jack Trice Stadium.

"They had an outstanding game plan on both sides of the ball," Rhoads said of the Panthers. "They knew our offense and defense and took advantage with great execution of all those wholes and weaknesses. They had great execution, especially for game one of the season."

The temperature at kickoff was 92 degrees, making it the warmest game on record at the stadium. Temperatures cooled to the upper 70s by the second half, though the humidity remained high.

Northern Iowa scored on its first three possessions, on drives of 69, 78 and 82 yards, as Johnson and Kollmorgen shredded a young Iowa State defense left even more inexperienced by the absence of senior cornerback Jansen Watson, who watched from the sideline in sweat clothes.

"You have to start strong," Jake Farley said. "We have to take this momentum into Missouri Valley (Conference) play. This is one game. We still have a lot of season to play."

Johnson broke three tackles on a 37-yard touchdown run that put the Panthers up 7-0 and walked into the end zone on a 9-yard reception from Kollmorgen that made it 14-7.

On the Panthers' next possession, Kollmorgen completed four straight passes before runs of 13 and 27 yards gave Johnson his third TD and a 21-7 lead with 6:52 left in the half.

Richardson threw first-half touchdown passes of 59 yards to senior Justin Coleman ? his first career catch ? and 7 yards to James White. But the Cyclones stalled twice inside the Northern Iowa 20-yard line in the third quarter and had to settle for the Netten field goals.

The second opportunity came after Deon Broomfield forced and recovered a UNI fumble at the Panthers' 20. Sam Tim's sack of Richardson, one of five by the Panthers, and an incomplete pass forced the field goal.

"The turning point was when we fumbled and their crowd was getting back into it," Mark Farley said. "If they had stuck it in there then, the crowd would have erupted. But our guys stepped up. That really swung it. That defensive stand was critical."