Going forward, Big Ten teams may want to think twice before they go out and schedule the Huskies as an opponent. The days of bringing the Huskies into a Big Ten stadium for an easy win over a mid-major program are in the past.

This season, the Huskies have gone into Kinnick Stadium and Ross-Ade Stadium and taken down Iowa and Purdue. NIU defeated the Hawkeyes 30-27 on a last-second field goal from kicker Mathew Sims while they handled Purdue with ease, blowing them out 55-24 in their homecoming game.

With these two victories, NIU became the first team in MAC history to defeat two Big Ten teams in the same regular season. These two wins say a lot about the Huskies’ program and show they are able to play with teams from the Big Ten.

The Huskies offense has been explosive in its two Big Ten games this season, totaling 840 yards and 85 points.

In his two games against the Big Ten, quarterback Jordan Lynch brought his A game and threw for 482 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 91 yards and one touchdown. Lynch put up these numbers without a single turnover.

While the defense has been torched for a total of 982 yards in these two games, it has continued to come up with big plays when it needs to.

In the two games, the Huskies’ defense has caused timely turnovers. Against Iowa the Huskies forced three turnovers and safety Jimmie Ward made the key interception at the end of the game, setting up the game-winning field goal.

Against the Boilermakers, the Huskies forced five turnovers, four of them interceptions. Defensive end George Rainey came up with the lone fumble recovery.

Safety Dechane Durante singlehandedly took Purdue quarterback Rob Henry out of the game with his two interceptions and Ward came up with another timely play, intercepting Henry’s replacement, Danny Etling, for a 62-yard touchdown.

The Huskies were also able to get after Purdue’s quarterback as they recorded three sacks in the game.

Next season’s scheduled matchup with Northwestern should be another great opportunity for the Huskies to show the Big Ten what they are made of.