1. Pounding the ball
Northern Illinois' offensive philosophy isn't hard to figure out. The Huskies play with an old-school mentality where the run game is king. They lead the Mid-American Conference in rushing at 229.6 yards per game, 60 more than the next-best running team. The two-pronged ground attack of Chad Spann and Me'co Brown, who operate in a rotation at tailback, average 153 yards per game. Ball State has been good against the run in recent games, giving up an average of 110.0 yards in the past five contests.
2. Quarterback decision
Ball State has prepared for Northern Illinois backup quarterback DeMarcus Grady to continue to run the offense in place of starter Chandler Harnish. Harnish, from Bluffton, Ind., missed the past three games with a knee injury. He returned to practice Monday on a limited basis and his status for today's game is uncertain. Grady has directed the offense with Harnish out, and he adds another strong rushing element to the Huskies' attack. Grady ran for 104 yards last week against Eastern Michigan.
3. Zeroed in on Quale
NIU coach Jerry Kill says Ball State's Quale Lewis is as good as any running back he's seen in the MAC in his two years in the league. The Ball State running game, led by Lewis, faces a heavy burden in today's game. The Cardinals must run the ball effectively behind the trifecta of Lewis, Eric Williams and Cory Sykes to have a chance at winning because the passing game behind QB Tanner Justice hasn't provided consistent results. Complicating Ball State's task is that the Huskies are the most difficult team to run on in the MAC, holding opponents to 104.2 yards per game.
4. Bring the A game
Ball State probably has to play its best game of the season in order to spring perhaps the biggest upset of the MAC season tonight. Northern Illinois might not jump off the radar as a strong team to some, but there's a reason it won at Purdue and lost by only eight points at Wisconsin. The Huskies lead the MAC in scoring offense and scoring defense, top the league in turnover margin, are first in rushing, rushing defense and total defense, and second in kickoff returns. In sum, Northern Illinois might be the most fundamentally sound team in the MAC.
5. The skinny
Ball State's game against Northern Illinois shapes up as a huge mismatch. The Cardinals proved two games ago that there isn't much difference between themselves and Eastern Michigan (BSU won 29-27), and the Huskies slapped the Eagles 50-6 last week. Ball State has to hope that Northern Illinois is taking a peek ahead on its schedule to games against MAC East title contender Ohio and MAC West leader Central Michigan.
Northern Illinois' offensive philosophy isn't hard to figure out. The Huskies play with an old-school mentality where the run game is king. They lead the Mid-American Conference in rushing at 229.6 yards per game, 60 more than the next-best running team. The two-pronged ground attack of Chad Spann and Me'co Brown, who operate in a rotation at tailback, average 153 yards per game. Ball State has been good against the run in recent games, giving up an average of 110.0 yards in the past five contests.
2. Quarterback decision
Ball State has prepared for Northern Illinois backup quarterback DeMarcus Grady to continue to run the offense in place of starter Chandler Harnish. Harnish, from Bluffton, Ind., missed the past three games with a knee injury. He returned to practice Monday on a limited basis and his status for today's game is uncertain. Grady has directed the offense with Harnish out, and he adds another strong rushing element to the Huskies' attack. Grady ran for 104 yards last week against Eastern Michigan.
3. Zeroed in on Quale
NIU coach Jerry Kill says Ball State's Quale Lewis is as good as any running back he's seen in the MAC in his two years in the league. The Ball State running game, led by Lewis, faces a heavy burden in today's game. The Cardinals must run the ball effectively behind the trifecta of Lewis, Eric Williams and Cory Sykes to have a chance at winning because the passing game behind QB Tanner Justice hasn't provided consistent results. Complicating Ball State's task is that the Huskies are the most difficult team to run on in the MAC, holding opponents to 104.2 yards per game.
4. Bring the A game
Ball State probably has to play its best game of the season in order to spring perhaps the biggest upset of the MAC season tonight. Northern Illinois might not jump off the radar as a strong team to some, but there's a reason it won at Purdue and lost by only eight points at Wisconsin. The Huskies lead the MAC in scoring offense and scoring defense, top the league in turnover margin, are first in rushing, rushing defense and total defense, and second in kickoff returns. In sum, Northern Illinois might be the most fundamentally sound team in the MAC.
5. The skinny
Ball State's game against Northern Illinois shapes up as a huge mismatch. The Cardinals proved two games ago that there isn't much difference between themselves and Eastern Michigan (BSU won 29-27), and the Huskies slapped the Eagles 50-6 last week. Ball State has to hope that Northern Illinois is taking a peek ahead on its schedule to games against MAC East title contender Ohio and MAC West leader Central Michigan.
