No. 15 Football (10-0, 6-0 MAC) got defensive about its play in the second half of Wednesday’s victory.

In an explosive, offensive-filled first half, the Huskies and the Ball State Cardinals (9-2, 6-1 MAC) combined to score 44 points — 24 of which belonged to the Cardinals. But the second half was a different story, as the Huskie defense held the Cardinals to a single field goal.

After trailing 24-20 at the half and being tied 27-27 heading into the third quarter, the Huskies marched out of Huskie Stadium with a 48-27 victory — but not without some minor halftime adjustments.

“We went in and made some adjustments,” said coach Rod Carey. “They weren’t earth-shattering adjustments; they were more about playing square football with our feet and with our hands, getting some vertical push in there.

“They still ran it on us a little bit, but I’ll tell you, we made some key stops there. The 6-yard gains were 4-yard gains in the fourth quarter. You go four and four, and you’re in third and two; now you can do something, and our defense did. So good adjustments and kids played really hard.”

After the Huskie defense forced Ball State into a three-and-out on its first drive of the game, the Cardinals were able to put points on the board on their final four drives of the first half. The 24 first-half points was tied for the second-highest total the Huskies had given up in the first half this season. They gave up 28 first-half points to the Idaho Vandals in the second game of the year and 24 first-half points to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the season opener.

The Huskies gave up 280 yards to the Cardinals in the first half but held them to only 214 yards in the second half.

The Cardinals were able to convert 67 percent (4-of-6) of their third downs in the first half, but the Huskies held them to 38 percent (3-of-8) in the second half. The Huskies stopped the Cardinals on only their fourth down attempt, which came with 3:47 left in the game with the score 34-27.

“No, there wasn’t any real dramatic changes,” said Cardinals head coach Pete Lembo. “They’re not a high-blitz team. I think their approach is very sound. They know they’re going to score a lot of points offensively, so they try to keep everything in front of them defensively and really make you earn it…. Eventually at some point you throw an incompletion or you give up a [tackle for loss] on a run. They’re very patiently defensively, and I think it meshes well with their high-powered offense.”

Asides from the field goal the Cardinals posted with 3:07 remaining in the third quarter, the deepest penetration they had into NIU territory in the second half was the Huskies’ 44-yard line, which occurred early in the fourth quarter. Of seven second-half drives, the Huskie defense allowed one field goal; forced three punts, a turnover on downs and an interception; and a possession that ended with the clock expiring.

“First off, I just want to give Northern’s defense credit,” said Cardinals quarterback Keith Wenning. “We just couldn’t keep the drives going. We moved the ball, we had a long drive, and on their side of the field the drive would just kind of stall. I think that was the difference from first half to second half: It was a matter of finishing drives and coming out with points.”