Football’s struggles against last season’s Dino Babers-coached Eastern Illinois Panthers should help this year’s squad be better prepared for the fast-paced offense it’ll face against the Bowling Green Falcons in the Marathon MAC Championship game.

Babers is now the head coach with the Falcons and brought his up-tempo offense from Charleston to Bowling Green, Ohio.

In the 2013 victory over the Panthers, the Huskies held on late to win a 43-39 shootout that required overcoming a 20-0 deficit in the first quarter. The matchup pitted quarterback Jordan Lynch, a Heisman finalist, against Jimmy Garoppolo, a second-round draft pick of the New England Patriots.

“Definitely looking back at the game, seeing the things that hurt us … it was more the tempo, the fast pace that caught us off guard on the defensive side of the ball,” said redshirt senior safety Dechane Durante. “We weren’t really ready for that. So, that’s a big emphasis going into this game.”

Defensive coordinator Jay Niemann said Babers runs “pretty much the same” up-tempo, spread offense that he had in place with the Panthers. In addition to watching Bowling Green film from this season, Niemann said the Huskies have looked at last season’s film when Garoppolo completed 34 of 49 pass attempts for 450 yards and six touchdowns against NIU.

The Huskies’ defense has practiced at a fast-paced speed with the scout team offense snapping the ball as quickly as they have this season.

The scout offense “ran the plays a lot faster,” Durante said. “As soon as we would turn our heads the play would be ran. So, we [are] definitely getting ready for it and trying to simulate as best as we can the tempo that Bowling Green’s going to go.”

Babers said the offensive tempo the Huskies saw last season against NIU was the second-year speed of the Panthers. This year’s squad is still in first-year mode.

The Falcons lost starting quarterback Matt Johnson in the season opener against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and have gone with James Knapke under center since then. Babers said the injury didn’t affect the type of offense he’s run; however, it has affected the tempo as the team has gone a little bit slower than he imagined.

Babers said he hasn’t taken away too much about NIU’s defense from last season’s meeting at Huskie Stadium because the group of players is different. He did take away some of the things the NIU coaches liked to do or call in certain situations.

After surviving Babers’ high-flying offense last season, the NIU defense knows what to expect.

“We know what type of offense they have,” said senior defensive end Jason Meehan during Monday’s MAC Championship teleconference. “It’s going to be very fast, and they’re going to try to get us tired. And having done that before will help us see it, and knowing we already experienced it will allow us to buy in more … .”