Northern Illinois has had an excellent turnaround from last year when it was 0-6 and beaten 49-30 by Buffalo. However, the Huskies have been a bit lucky, too. Their past six games have been decided by one score and NIU has won five -- two on last-second kicks. Still, even at home it's hard to take Buffalo as the Bulls have not looked good in back-to-back losses and have just one cover in their past seven. QB Kyle Vantrease has just been ruled out as well (not as huge a deal as it might be as Vantrease had been struggling and splitting time of late). Northern Illinois has the carrot of winning the MAC West.