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How to Watch Northern Illinois vs Ohio Football Online

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The Ohio Bobcats football team will host the Northern Illinois Huskies in MAC play on Saturday.

The game (3:30 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch it live right here on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that includes multiple MAC football games every week, other college football and live sports, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.

You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch NIU vs Ohio live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.


Northern Illinois vs Ohio Preview

The Bobcats won their MAC opener last week, besting the Buffalo Bulls 21-20 on the road in overtime to improve to 3-2 on the year.

The Bulls found the end zone on the first possession after regulation, but missed the extra point.

Ohio freshman running back O’Shaan Allison then tied the game back up with a 5-yard touchdown run, and redshirt senior kicker Louie Zervos won it with his third extra point of the day.

“Louie has been very consistent for us here over the years,” Ohio head coach Frank Solich said, according to The Post. “[Punter Michael Farkas] has been able to change the field for us in terms of field position more than any kicker I can recall. We did win the field position battle, which was critical. We lost the sack battle and turnover battle, and usually along with that, you lose field position. The special teams didn’t allow that to happen, and that was huge in this ballgame.”

Allison rushed 27 times for 96 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Bulls outgained the Bobcats 378-341 and won the turnover battle 2-1, but Ohio had the edge on third downs, converting on 8 of 13 attempts; Buffalo reached the marker on 6 of 14 third-down tries.

“This one ranks right up there in terms of having a team that has done everything they can to have a special season,” Solich said, per The Post. “I think a lot of teams find it difficult to play there, so to have them win it the way they did and play as hard as they for five quarters, it’s about as good as it gets in my mind.”

The Huskies have dropped four straight since they bested the Illinois State Redbirds in their season debut.

They fell to the Ball State Cardinals 27-20 in their conference opener last week. NIU led 17-3 at halftime, but the Cardinals scored the game’s next 24 points.

“I have to continue to get our players to get locked in to play four quarters of football,” NIU head coach Thomas Hammock said, according to the Northern Star. “It’s something that we have been searching for, talking about and practicing, to play four quarters. I’ll look that adversity in the face. We will continue to fight week in and week out to find the consistency we need to be a good football team.”

He added: “When you look at momentum, it’s always the next snap, and we were never able to gain momentum on the next snap. We started as well as we can start, we just have to have a way to come back in the second half and put it all together.”