The NIU defense played the role of Idaho’s famous potatoes and the Vandals mashed them.

Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle was the chef, adding flavor with his own recipe of precision passing and perfect reads.

A defense that forced six three-and-outs against Purdue last week only forced one Saturday. And when the Huskies did force third down, the chef or one of his assistants, running backs De’Maundray Woolridge and Princeton McCarty, got the first down. In the game, The Vandals converted eight of 13 third downs.

“You look at football across the globe and third downs are so important,” NIU head coach Jerry Kill said .

As deadly as Enderle was through the air, Woolridge may have been the X-factor for Idaho. The 5-foot-9, 241-pound senior looked more like a freight train plowing through NIU’s defense than a running back en route to 143 yards on 19 carries.

“He was a big boy,” linebacker Alex Kube said. “But that’s why we do things in practice to get our linebackers and lineman physical every Tuesday and Wednesday. We tackle and we hit. It doesn’t matter who the guy is, we need to tackle him.”

When Woolridge wasn’t running, it was all Enderle. Though he was sacked three times, the quarterback did his damage when he stood tall and comfortably in the pocket with no pressure from the NIU defense. Enderle threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns.

But the play of the game would be one of the third downs that the Huskies couldn’t stop. On third-and-three, after the Huskies had blocked a punt and cut the Vandals lead to three, Enderle dropped a dime to Eric Greenwood for 25 yards. It was the dagger.

“We got the third down, it looks like we’re in good shape,” Kill said. “[If] you play off, [Enderle] is going to throw the hitch for the first down. So you make him throw the toughest pass in football and they executed. They just executed.”
“It was huge,” Enderle said.

With homecoming next week, NIU fans are hoping the Huskie defense comes back home too.

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