Northern Illinois is a pretty good 2-3 football team. All three of their losses are by 4 points or less. Two of them are to 5-1 Western Michigan and 5-1 Minnesota. The other was last week to Tennessee 13-9. I know Tennessee is down, but for a MAC team to go head-to-head with the Vols is impressive. The week before that all they did was shutout MAC opponent Eastern Michigan 37-0. They are definitely an above average defensive group. That is not good news for Miami-Ohio who struggles offensively. Their only win is against I-AA Busch-League Charleston Southern. Last week they got crushed by Temple 28-10 and this was after coming off a 2-week layoff. Miami-Ohio backers will say they only lost to Michigan 16-6 early in the year. Uhh, Michigan is average this year. They just got waxed in the big house by Juice Williams. Since the so-called great Michigan game, they beat a I-AA team, lost to rival Cincy 45-20, and then lost to Temple. For technical support, there is a regular 67% momentum system play with a 10-1 ATS tightener and a 5-0 ATS tightener that Northern Illinois fits in both. The interesting part on the 5-0 ATS tightener is the average winning margin is over 36 POINTS PER GAME with an average line of about -15 which is a difference of 21. Take NORTHERN ILLINOIS -11 and I might add some picks later in the week. Good luck to all.