"We had four or five yards before I had to make a cut," Harnish said. "We were just blowing them off the ball. [The line] just really dominated

Those are the words of the NIU QB, and they tell pretty much everything you need to know about yesterday's loss. When crunch time came, NIU didn't need to throw the ball....they just ran it right down our throat.

Sound familiar? Well, it has been going on for years. Somehow we got the idea earlier that we had beaten this problem defending the run, but it turns out that we haven't. Coming into the season we were worried about the defensive line....apparently with good reason.

Starting late in the second quarter, here are the drives....

• NIU, 13 plays, 48 yards, 6:16
• (halftime)
• NIU, 17 plays, 80 yards, 10:06
• BG, 8 plays, 69 yards, 3:06
• NIU 16 plays, 72 yards, 8:05
• BG, 6 plays, 11 yards, 3:07
• NIU, 8 plays, 24 yards, 4:43

And, those second half drives feature something like three passes in all those plays.

This is a team in our conference, just to keep track.

There was so much wrong that its really tough to go too far into it....let me itemize a few

• We couldn't run the ball (but should have expected it).
• We had less than 100 yards passing
• We had two punts blocked, including one that led to the winning FG.
• Coach Brandon says we were in position to win the game.
• NIU was 10 of 16 on third down
• NIU attempted only 12 passes, and completed only 5! And threw two INT's.
• The offense had the opportunity in the first half to take a big league, but didn't.
• We won the turnover battle....oh, never mind.
• We had 10 first downs...can you believe that?

Frankly, this was a game I figured we would lose. But, HOW we lost it still stings. Very little is working right now, for any part of the ball. As I posted last night...I'm not sure how or why this team is this much worse than last year's.