DeKALB — The football team couldn’t muster up any offense until late against the Central Michigan Chippewas, losing to their divisional rival 40-10 on Wednesday.

The Huskies offense struggled to put together any productive drives with two lost fumbles, three turnovers on downs and seven punts by senior punter Matt Ference.

Head Coach Thomas Hammock said he feels disappointed that the team isn’t seeing results for their work so far this year, falling to 0-2.

“I take full responsibility for how we played, we have to play better,” Hammock said. “It’s unfortunate, the way our kids have practiced and got themselves prepared, at the moment we are just not reaping the rewards.”

Redshirt senior quarterback Ross Bowers struggled to connect with his wide receivers, finishing the game at 16-for-32 and 139 passing yards. Bowers started the game but was pulled in the fourth quarter for the second week in a row.

Hammock held off judging Bowers’ performance in the moments after the game, saying the change was to try and spark life into the offense.

“Right now, I’m going to have a chance to go watch the film and evaluate how Ross did and then we can go from there,” Hammock said. “At that moment, we’re not thinking about pulling the quarterback. We’re just looking to find ways to do the things we need to do to get better opportunities.

NIU was unable to contain the Chippewas in the second half with redshirt first-year running back Lew Nichols III making big plays. Nichols III finished with 91 rushing yards, 51 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

The young defense still showed glimpses of what they could do, stopping the Chippewas from scoring on two of their four redzone possessions. Redshirt senior linebacker Kyle Pugh was the star of the squad, finishing with 14 tackles and one-and-a-half sacks.

Pugh said the defense did well against the Chippewas but still had mental mistakes to clean up and study for the future.

“I think walking off the field, it was pretty good for our defense,” Pugh said. “We can always get better. We had a couple mental errors that cost us some big plays, so we definitely want to see what was going on there on those plays and get back to the drawing board.”

The Chippewas scored the game’s first points on a 58-yard touchdown pass from redshirt first-year quarterback Daniel Richardson to junior wide receiver Dallas Dixon.

NIU’s best scoring chance of the half came on their third drive, moving all the way to the CMU 23. Bowers looked for junior running back Erin Collins on a fourth down pass, but an incomplete pass ended the drive and kept it 7-0 after the first quarter.

The young defense gave the Chippewas problems early and added to the highlight reel of one new player. Redshirt sophomore cornerback Jordan Gandy, a DeKalb graduate that transferred to NIU this past offseason, chased down a high hanging pass for an interception off Richardson.

The Huskies defense was able to turn away another potential Chippewas scoring drive later in the quarter. On a fourth and short from NIU’s six-yard line, Richardson was sacked by Pugh to force a turnover on downs.

The only other points of the first half came on a bad snap to Ference late in the second. In the scramble by both teams to retain the ball, NIU had a player punch the ball out of the endzone for a safety. The halftime score was 9-0 for CMU.

The end of the first half was marred by an injury to NIU redshirt junior Jordan Cole, who appeared to suffer a severe leg injury. Cole was taken off the field on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.