Ohio is coming into this game playing very well this season as they are 5-1 and they have won their last 5 straight games since losing to San Diego State in their 1st game of the season. They have some good wins this year as they won on the road by 7 points against FAU, beat a power 5 team in Iowa State at home, and they have won their last 2 games in conference play by 25 points or more in each. They are going up against a Northern Illinois team that has been awful this season as they are 2-4 and have some bad losses on their schedule as well. They lost at home to Southern Illinois from the FCS, at home to Tulsa by 8 points, and on the road against Nebraska by over 20 points. They have played better in their MAC games recently as they only lost by 2 points on the road against Toledo and beat Akron by over 40 points on the road in their last game, but Akron has been one of the worst teams in the MAC over the last few years and Toledo does not have a great defense this season either. Both Ohio and NIU have been averaging around 25 points scored per game this season but NIU has also been allowing the same points per game while Ohio has been averaging around 11 points allowed per game. Ohio has a much better defense than NIU and they also have a very good run defense that is going to turn NIU into a 1-dimensional offense that will not be able to rely on Lombardi's arm to beat Ohio. Ohio is still the best team in the MAC and their defense is going to shut down NIU in this game. Ohio will cover the spread here.