DeKALB | No. 1 Ohio State had 488 yards of offense against NIU’s defense last week.

This was the same OSU team that beat No. 2 Texas 24-7 Saturday, the same day Ohio amassed 509 yards against the Huskies defense.

Ohio quarterback Austen Everson became the first Ohio passer in 20 years to throw for over 300 yards.

Bobcats running back Kalvin McRae ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns while catching five passes for 98 yards and another touchdown.

McRae also was one of nine receivers to catch a pass from Everson, who completed 23 passes and registered three touchdowns.

So where was the NIU defense that limited OSU to 191 yards in the second half last week?

Inside the room where the media meets for the post game conference, NIU has a pyramid that says G.I.D. at the top. It stands for “Get It Done.”

At the bottom of the pyramid, one of three blocks says “practice to win.” The block above it is titled “physically tough.” Within this block are the words attack-pressure, big hits, swarm-effort and ball inside and in front.

NIU football coach Joe Novak and the players said they had a real good week of practice. Bottom block of the pyramid, check.

Whether or not the Huskies supplanted the “play physically tough” block Saturday may be up for question, but the loss is not. Thus, using the Huskies pyramid as a standard for success, NIU did not get it done.

“We wanted to keep Garrett Wolfe off the field, keep our drives alive and finish them off,” said Ohio football coach Frank Solich.

NIU fifth-year senior quarterback Phil Horvath admitted Ohio just out-executed the Huskies.

“They got the third-down conversions and we didn’t,” Horvath said.

Then again, Horvath hasn’t had the opportunity to play against the NIU defense on a Saturday.

Sean Connor is an NIU football beat reporter for the Northern Star.