Northern Illinois: 2026 Week 12 recap

Northern Illinois sits at 0–9 after dropping Week 10 to San José State 30–19, a result that pushed the Huskies' rating down 1.5 points to −26.9, now ranked 137th. The offensive inefficiency is real: a 11% red-zone touchdown rate and 31% third-down conversion rate explain why the Huskies can't close out drives. GIE projects just 0.83 expected wins remaining, meaning the path to bowl eligibility has essentially evaporated. Nevada comes to town this week, and while Northern Illinois has shown some late-game resilience (3.51 late-game leverage performance), the broader talent gap and execution issues make climbing out of this hole a long shot.