Look for less sizzle and more smash-mouth football Wednesday night when Northern Illinois plays host to Miami of Ohio.
Phil Horvath passed for school records of 486 yards and six touchdowns when the Huskies lost to Akron 48-42 in overtime in their Mid-American Conference opener Sept. 24.
Coach Joe Novak liked Horvath’s statistics, but he didn’t like the final score. And he was irked even more by NIU’s net rushing total of 50 yards.
“That’s not us,” Novak said. “That’s not what we’re about. We need to run the ball. That’s our identity.”
Fans can expect to see Northern try to correct this identity crisis by having Horvath hand off to Garrett Wolfe and A.J. Harris. Their rushing could eat up time and keep the ball away from Josh Betts, who quarterbacks a wide-open Miami offense that averages 315.8 passing yards per game.
NIU’s practices have stressed the basics of blocking and tackling. The Huskies can keep their MAC title hopes alive if they block well enough to re-establish their running game and improve their sloppy tackling.
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Next: Wednesday vs. Miami of Ohio, 6:35 p.m., ESPN2
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