732 Illinois –21 Hard to believe that Northern Illinois has much of a chance here without there best player Xavier Silas who will be sidelined for the next three weeks with a broken hand. In his place the Huskies will use a true freshman Tony Nixon to run the team. They were not competitive against Northwestern losing by 20 and would also figure to struggle against this Illini team loaded with talent. This game should have a little pace to it giving Illinois more possessions to cover this number. Illinois has shown it has had no problems scoring in this young season and should be able to score on this porous Huskies defense. Rarely do the Huskies step out and play a team with this kind of talent. Last time they played an out of conference opponent ranked in the top 20 they lost to Notre Dame by 46.
