Not NIU's day

NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish throws the ball away while being pursued by Idaho's Aaron Lavarias in the third quarter. Harnish was flagged for intentional grounding and the Huskies were pinned deep in their territory. (Rob Winner – rwinner@daily-chronicle.com)

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DeKALB – The question of whether to call Northern Illinois' 34-31 loss to Idaho a letdown sparked a minor debate in the Huskies' locker room early Saturday night.

NIU coach Jerry Kill lumped seven "Nos" on the subject, making his answer crystal clear. Among the "ayes", sophomore safety Tracy Wilson thought the Huskies were left with no other label, last week's road victory at Purdue notwithstanding.

"Every loss is a letdown to me," Wilson said. "Idaho executed, they ran their plays properly, but that first half, we still didn't come out like we normally do. The whole first half, they were more physical with us all the time, and we weren't ready for it."

Northern Illinois followed its first win over a Big Ten opponent in 21 years with a sluggish showing against up-and-coming Idaho of the WAC.

A week after edging the Boilermakers on the strength of a gutsy fourth-quarter call, the Huskies entered the final period against the Vandals trailing by 12 points.

NIU (2-2) rallied to within the final margin on Me'co Brown's 1-yard run and two-point conversion out of the trendy Wildcat formation with 5:51 to play, but Idaho (3-1) hardly panicked. Facing a third-and-3 from his own 27, Vandals quarterback Nathan Enderle lofted a pass to wideout Eric Greenwood that went for 25 yards and a first down that all but sealed the game.

"It was huge," Enderle said, exhaling. "We'd been throwing back shoulder fades all day long, and I think they had started to play that a lot better before we converted that one."

Adjusting to Idaho's ground attack proved a different story. A week after rushing for a meager 55 yards on 23 carries in a home win against San Diego State, the Vandals gashed the Huskies' defense for 207 yards on 44 attempts, an average of 4.7 yards per carry.

Tailback De'Maundray Woolridge, a 5-foot-9, 241-pound senior Huskies linebacker Alex Kube labeled "a big boy," led the way with 18 carries for 144 yards and a touchdown.

"We wanted to stop the run. We didn't do a great job of that," NIU defensive end Brandon Bice said. "I don't think it was us focused on last week's win or anything, I just think it wasn't our day."

Idaho might have rendered its opponents' late charge moot had the Vandals not suffered from the same red zone field goal syndrome that afflicted the Huskies the entire game. Idaho grabbed a 28-13 lead on a 1-yard Woolridge run with 7:59 remaining in the third quarter but only managed two Trey Farquhar field goals after that.

Down 34-16 when the second of those passed through the uprights, NIU drew closer on quarterback Chandler Harnish's 4-yard pass to Landox Cox with 8:25 to play. Jordan Delegal's blocked punt set up Brown 2:34 later, though it turned out the Vandals' offense wasn't finished.

"They just executed," Kill said. "They made the plays. We made those kinds of plays last week, and they made them today."

NIU will look to regain that form beginning next Saturday, when it hosts Western Michigan to begin MAC play.