Maybe Northern Illinois isn't all that bad. Consider this
- Last weekend they beat a Bowling Green team by 10 that pushed Penn State (lost 27-34 @ PSU) and A&M (lost 20-26 @A&M) without Antario Brown, the RB that gave us fits. In the win, they held Bowling Green to 205 yards of offense.
- In their two losses, they lost to Buffalo in OT despite holding Buffalo to 184 total yards, but NI had 2 turnovers to Buffalo's 1. And they lost by 7 at NC State where they held NC State to 171 total yards - but they had 4 FOUR! turnovers.
- It's remarkable that ND got no turnovers against Northern Illinois, but gave them 2, including the crushing interception that led to the go ahead field goal.
I am flagging that Northern Illinois (especially with Antario Brown, who was hurt in their UMass win, apparently) may actually be a decent team, and their defense has shut some teams pretty much completely down.
It would not hurt the cause if they were to win 8 or 9 games.