It’s been one of those years for Northern Illinois. 

Very little has gone right for the 2-7 Huskies, and the bad news on Wednesday began as soon as the ball was kicked off. 

Toledo returned the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, marking the beginning of the end for NIU in an eventual 42-3 loss. Adding to the sting was who returned the kick: former Huskie Trayvon Rudolph. 

“Dynamic football player,” NIU coach Thomas Hammock said. 

The look of dejection on Hammock’s face as he answered questions inside a classroom in Toledo’s ROTC building wasn’t just about Wednesday night. The pain came from a season that’s spiraled downward. NIU was picked to finish in the top half of the Mid-American Conference, yet the Huskies have just one MAC win as the calendar nears mid-November. 

But even as losses piled up this year, margins have remained thin. Eleven points at Maryland. Three to San Diego State. Eleven to Miami. Six to Eastern Michigan. 

The 39-point evisceration by Toledo was the largest conference loss of Hammock’s tenure and the second biggest overall (Michigan, 63-10). It was the program’s worst MAC loss since a 70-21 setback to Toledo in 2007. 

“They went out and dominated the football game,” Hammock said. “To be honest with you, there wasn’t a lot that I can take from this game. We didn’t play good in any phase of the game.”

The battle lines were drawn on the lines of scrimmage, with Toledo’s defensive line constantly pressuring NIU’s outmanned quarterbacks. On the other side, Rockets QB Tucker Gleason went home with a clean jersey. 

“The biggest thing is they beat us in the trenches,” Hammock said. “Their O-line and D-line dominated us, and that’s really what the game came down to. Their ability to protect the quarterback and give him time, and then our inability to protect our quarterback and give him time. That’s what the game was won and lost on.”  

Toledo had seven tackles for loss, including four sacks. NIU had two tackles for loss and zero sacks. The rushing numbers reflected a similar mismatch, as the Rockets averaged 4.6 yards per carry. One game after the Huskies went off for 315 rushing yards, Toledo held them to a season-low 62 yards and just 1.7 yards per carry. NIU only had four carries of more than five yards. 

“I’m proud of our defense,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “We committed a lot of players to the run fits. The game plan was to try to make them pass it to beat us. So for our guys to keep them one-dimensional, I thought that was huge.”

The NIU defense’s inability to force punts was another factor that loomed large. Toledo converted 9 of 14 third-down attempts, extending drives that more often than not resulted in touchdowns. 

“The whole point is to get off the field,” said NIU linebacker Filip Maciorowski, who had 11 tackles. “So it’s rough when we get into a spot on third down where we feel like we have a chance to get off the field and we don’t. It’s obviously pretty frustrating.”

Perhaps not as exasperating as all the losing. NIU is now forced to play out their final season in the MAC with no hopes of playing in a bowl game. The Huskies travel to last-place UMass next week before consecutive home games to end the year. 

Sometimes all you can do is look to the future. 

“Part of being a man is dealing with adversity,” Hammock said. “What better time to deal with adversity than right now? We have an opportunity to get back on the practice field and get better. And the way you handle this and the way you handle everything else the next three weeks is how you’re going to handle things in life.”