Senior linebacker Keenan Blalark got his read, dropped back into coverage, saw the receiver catch the ball and did what he was supposed to do — lay a bone-crushing hit.

Except the receiver wasn’t wearing a silver Ohio State helmet, he wasn’t surrounded by 100,000 fans and it wasn’t September. Blalark was in Huskie Stadium. It’s April, and the receiver was his teammate.

It didn’t matter to Blalark and his teammates on defense, as they showed they were in mid-season form over the weekend in the 59th annual spring game.

“Once we put those pads on, I don’t care if it’s September, October or April,” Blalark said.

With NIU’s two highest-profile players — Garrett Wolfe and Doug Free — respectfully sidelined and playing sparingly, NIU’s defense stole the spotlight from the usually potent Huskie offense.

As a whole, the defense racked up 11 tackles for a loss, nine pass deflections, four sacks and three interceptions.

“We had some good hitting out there,” said head coach Joe Novak. “Our defense is going to be much improved.”

Blalark said the improved defense is in part of the other linebackers and himself starting to gel together.

That gelling helped the NIU linebackers nab all three interceptions. Sophomore linebacker Tim McCarthy and redshirt freshmen linebackers Harold Alexander and Cory Hanson each had a pick.

Four Huskies, including Blalark, totaled six tackles each. Sophomore defensive end Larry English had three of the four sacks to go along with five tackles.

Of everyone standing on the sidelines, only Wolfe was upset with how the defense played. But that’s because he wasn’t in there playing against them.

“To see the defense play the way they have this entire spring kind of bothers me,” Wolfe said. “I want to get out there and compete with those guys.”

Sean Ostruszka contributed to this article.