Northern Illinois Wins An Ugly Game In Idaho, 45-35

The Huskies had nine sacks, yet that wasn't the most interesting stat. NIU played ugly, very ugly. ELEVEN penalties  resulted in 107 penalty yards. That's a lot of penalties, and it seemed like at least 4 or 5 were personal fouls.

The run defense wasn't great, yet the pas rush was dominant. Coach Rod Carey and some players were saying Idaho came out and ran a lot of plays and formations they hadn't seen on film. Kudos to the Vandals for catching the NIU staff off guard, but the Huskies came back and made adjustments. If the defense plays like it did Saturday NIU is going to have issues. Although, it seemed like the Huskies were beating themselves.

I'm not going to lie, Week 3 was one of the oddest I've seen in college football in a long time. Akron took Michigan to the wire, and should have won. Arizona State had a very odd win over Wisconsin, Purdue outplayed ND for a half, and UCLA went on to score like 35 unanswered points in Lincoln.

That's how it felt in Moscow. The Huskies shot themselves in the foot in the very odd Kibbie Dome. Another way it was odd: Jordan Lynch looked human, yet he scored 5 TDs. The WRs had too many dropped passes again, yet they showed their talent. Another odd stat: Tommylee Lewis had 4 rushes for 104 yards as a WR. It was nice to have him back after an ankle sprain at Iowa.

Whats Next: NIU goes home to DeKalb to play a top FCS team in Eastern Illinois. I expect this team to come back focused after its odd trip out west. BTW, NIU had to stay just under two hours away in Spokane, WA because the Moscow/Pullman area didn't have enough hotels for the teams. I also expect Perez Ford and his 3 sacks to be named MAC West defensive player of the week. The Huskies are still 2-0 and a top team, but if they want to meet aspirations they have to clean their game up.