FIU Football Denies UConn Comeback, Wins Their Third Straight Game

HARTFORD, CN – Head coach Mike MacIntyre’s motto of “A win is a win” is certainly holding up.

Despite being another tale of two halves for this FIU Football team, they managed to get to Hartford on time, get a big lead early, and hold on to get the job done, defeating the UConn Huskies by a score of 24-17.

In the first half, the Panthers offense was firing on all cylinders, putting up 21 points as quarterback Keyone Jenkins recorded two touchdowns – a 45-yard dart to Jalen Bracey, and a 64-yard bomb to Kris Mitchell.

In the second half, the FIU offense was stagnant and was forced to punt five times, missed a field goal, and was shut out, allowing the Huskies to slowly but surely climb back into the game.

Once again, it was up to the defense for the Panthers to bail them out, and to their credit, they did.

The Offense Came Out Swinging

In what felt like a repeat of the beginning of the LA Tech game in Week 0, the FIU Panthers looked to be the better team early on.

After a balanced pass and run offense with double-digit gains for running back Shomari Lawrence, tight end Jackson McDonald, and a scramble from Jenkins himself, FIU scored in their first drive of the game and set the tone early.

What assisted the offense was the defense, who struggled to contain UConn’s rushing attack in their first drive, but did just enough to make them settle for a field goal.

After that, however, the Panthers blanked the Huskies whenever they had the ball. Six drives, five punts, and no points generated, this set up FIU around the 30-50 yard line in every one of their drives, leading to big plays and big points.

What made the beginning of this game all the more interesting was that FIU got into Hartford late in the night thanks to an emergency landing in Orlando late in the afternoon due to issues with the plane.

After a five-hour delay, they finally got to Connecticut late at night, with a little less sleep than they had hoped for.

It is worth mentioning that MacIntyre cleared the air about the situation, citing that the players are students and tend to stay up late anyway.

Also, despite a hurricane off the coast of New England, the weather at Rentschler Field was fine – in the low 70s and sunny.

We’re Back in Louisiana, Baby

The second half of football was…not very good for the offense. As mentioned earlier, FIU was shut out in the second half by the UConn defense, but it was self-inflicted wounds that hampered the Panthers.

Starting off with the playcalling, it regressed after halftime. The most notable example of this was that five of FIU’s offensive possessions began with a draw play – a gain of five yards, a loss of a yard, a gain of a yard, a gain of two yards, and a loss of two yards.

Along with that, Jenkins’ time in the pocket was cut short with multiple sacks and hits on the quarterback. Some passes up the middle were also off-target and deep shots were inaccurate.

Combine all of that with holding penalties on the offense and multiple roughing-the-passer penalties on defense, and UConn clawed their way back into this game.

So it came down to the FIU defense, who did not disappoint. Granted, they gave up 14 points, but the defense had to spend the majority of the second half on the field thanks to the Panthers’ struggling offense, also setting up UConn around midfield.

But they did their job. The Panthers defense still forced four punts and a turnover on downs, just enough to secure the 24-17 win.

Final Thoughts

You gotta pleased by the fact that FIU has won three in a row. There’s no doubt about it MacIntyre is now one win away from reaching his win total from last season, and we’re only four games in.

At this point in the season, however, it feels like the defense is the backbone of this team, sometimes having to carry the sputtering offense.

There are moments where the offense shines and Jenkins looks like a star. He and Mitchell, for example, are looking like a QB-WR duo that can last a long time for this program.

But I still have concerns about the offensive playcalling and how they don’t seem to make many adjustments in the second half.

This was a worrying trend we saw when they faced LA Tech and Maine, and we thought they had fixed that against North Texas, but it reared its ugly head against UConn.

Regardless, FIU keeps finding new and interesting ways to win football games, and that’s all you want them to do.

Up next for the Panthers is their homecoming game against the Liberty Flames on Saturday, September 23rd at 6:30pm.