On a day when the offense stole the show with 658 yards of offense and 59 points, No. 17 football’s (8-0, 4-0 MAC) defense played arguably its best half of football this season in the first half.

In the 59-20 win against the Eastern Michigan Eagles (1-7, 0-4 MAC) at Huskie Stadium Saturday, the NIU defense held the Eagles to only three points in the first half. The lone EMU score came on a 25-yard field goal from Dylan Mulder with 1:01 remaining in the first quarter.

Before the EMU field goal, the Huskies forced two punts to open the game. Of seven first-half possessions for the Eagles, the Huskies forced six punts.

The three points surrendered by the Huskies in the first half were tied for the least amount of points they gave up in one half this season. In two other games NIU gave up just three points in a half: the first half against Iowa and the second half at Central Michigan.

“For our defense, I feel like that’s always our goal, to come out with a fast start,” said linebacker Boomer Mays. “Any time we can get them to go three-and-out and get that ball back to the offense, that’s what we want to do.”

The Huskies forced the Eagles into two three-and-outs in the first half and held them to 0-of-8 on third-down conversions. They held EMU to 79 passing yards on 6-of-15 (40 percent) passing and 59 rushing yards on 18 attempts (3.3 yards per carry).

They contained EMU running back Bronson Hill to 65 rushing yards on 10 carries in the first half. Take out his two runs of 16 yards and one run of 10 yards, and the Huskies held Hill to 23 rushing yards on seven carries.

“The offense, they tried to line up and run it on us a little bit,” Mays said. “I mean, they have a good back, No. 30’s [Hill] pretty good, so I felt like our d-line got off the ball pretty well, which helped clear the holes for the linebackers and the safeties, as well.”

Mays recorded five total tackles, which was tied for second on the team, and led the team with two tackles for loss.

For the first time this season the Huskie defense failed to generate a turnover.

Head coach Rod Carey said he wasn’t ready to rank the defense’s performance without seeing the film but said he knows it was good.

“Obviously you’d always like to get the turnovers, but … when the top guys were in there I was really pleased,” Carey said. “I wasn’t real pleased when the younger guys got in there and they kind of got it run down their throat a little bit, but that’s correctable. We’re going to expect that no matter who’s in we stop that run, and we didn’t right there. Overall, pleased with them.”

The defensive starters played a few possessions in the second half but were not in for long as the backups, and younger players saw more playing time. In all, 33 players saw action on the Huskie defense.