Road trips haven’t been good to the NIU football team in recent years.

Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at Ball State (2-2, 0-0) will give the Huskies (2-3, 1-0) a chance to win their second road game in their last 11 contests and more importantly, move to 2-0 in the MAC.

“Last year of course, it was a great game, very close, very competitive,” coach Joe Novak said. “We were lucky to come out ahead.”

The last time the two teams got together, a MAC West Division title was on the line.

It came down to the final play before the Huskies were able to escape with the 33-29 victory.

In that game, Ball State running back Marcus Merriweather ran for 165 yards and three touchdowns on his way to 1,244 yards and 12 touchdowns for the season.

So far this year, Merriweather has eclipsed the 100-yard plateau three times and missed the marker by only four yards in a loss to Clemson.

“We certainly didn’t defend him very well last year,” Novak said “He’s a big, strong, physical kid. A lot like Michael Turner. He’s taller, but he’s physical like Mike and hard to bring down.”

Along with Merriweather, the Cardinals offense depends a lot on junior quarterback Talmadge Hill.

As a sophomore, Hill threw for 1,953 yards and 13 touchdowns but was picked off 15 times, including three times against NIU.

So far this season, Hill has completed 66-of-95 passes for a 69 percent completion rate, good enough for third best in the country.

“Their quarterback Talmadge Hill is throwing the ball much better,” Novak said. “We’re going to have to be on top of our game to defend him.”

NIU will have to do a better job passing against BSU in order to free up the nation’s leading rusher, Michael Turner. Turner has ran for 485 yards in the last two games but quarterback Josh Haldi has passed for only 134 yards in those contests.

“We’ve got to throw it better, there’s no question about that,” Novak said. “Josh certainly hasn’t thrown it real good but our receivers haven’t done a good job either and our protection at times has broken down. We’ve got to put some fear in people’s hearts.”

Since arriving at NIU, Novak holds a 3-2 record against former coaching mate and current BSU coach Bill Lynch.

Novak and Lynch both coached at Indiana in 1993 and 1994.

“There’s nobody I have more respect for than Northern Illinois and Joe Novak and the way he runs his program,” Lynch said. “You watch them play on tape, they play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. Our kids better get lined up to play a physical game because that’s what Northern’s gonna bring.”