The NIU football team led Eastern Michigan on the road Saturday in the fourth quarter but gave up 10 unanswered points in a 16-10 loss.

Eastern Michigan (2-6, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) entered Saturday, allowing 35.7 points per game, 126th out of 134 teams. But the Huskies (1-5, 0-2) continued their offensive struggles. They still haven’t reached the 20-point mark in a game this year.

“We’re doing everything right besides winning the game,” said NIU coach Thomas Hammock after his team ran for over 200 yards, didn’t allow a sack and didn’t commit a penalty. “That’s what I have to love with. We played disciplined football, we’re not doing anything negative, we’re not just making enough plays to win.”

Down 6-3 in the third, NIU cornerback Donte Harrison got an interception deep in Huskies territory, but the offense couldn’t do much. The defense got a three-and-out on the next drive, and this time Telly Johnson broke off an 80-yard touchdown run, the longest of his career.

NIU has six touchdowns this year. Four of them are of 74 yards or longer and two of those are by Johnson.

“It’s frustrating. I really feel like it all comes down to execution when it’s needed,” Johnson said. “Like we might go out there and get 7 yards on first down and it’s second and 3, and then we’re off the field. We can’t do that. It’s hard to win a game that way.”

The Eagles used a 64-play drive to take a 13-10 lead with 8:31 left in the fourth quarter, then tacked on a field goal after a Brady Davidson interception for a 16-10 lead with 5:40 left.

The Huskies had a chance to take the lead late, reaching the EMU 27 with under a minute left thanks to a 21-yard pass from Davidson to Givens. But four straight incompletions ended the drive and the comeback hopes.

Johnson ran 12 times for 137 yards. Davidson, a true freshman, was 11 for 26 for 94 yards in his second start. Eastern Michigan entered Saturday allowing 476.7 yards per game, including 251.5 on the ground and 225.2 through the air. NIU finished with 216 ground yards and 94 on the ground for 310 yards of total offense.

The NIU defense held the Eagles to 296 total yards.

“I think it’s tough when we play well and we don’t get the results we want,” Harrison said. “It’s just like lapses at a time. We just have lapses when we can’t have them. We can’t give up anything. If they don’t score, they can’t win.”

The Huskies head to Ohio University next week to play the defending MAC champion Bobcats (3-3, 1-1).

“There’s no quit in us,” Harrison said. “We’re going to go out every week, no matter what. We’re going to fight. The losses, that doesn’t make the game any harder. We just go out there and play. I don’t see it changing any bit. We’re going to go out there, keep doing our thing and hopefully get this thing turned around.”