Northern Michigan University’s Ravon Johnson leaps to catch a pass late in the fourth quarter of the Wildcats’ Homecoming game on Sept. 21 at the Superior Dome in Marquette. Defending on the play is Davenport’s Deion Powers, left, and Wardell Barry. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

This weekend: Wayne State at NMU, 1 p.m. Saturday, at the Superior Dome; Radio: WUPT The Point 100.3 FM

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MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University football team is in dire straits right now.

After winning their season opener at home over McKendree, NMU has struggled and is on a three-game losing streak. The skid includes a blowout loss last weekend at No. 2 Ferris State, so the Wildcats will need a spark if they want to turn their season around.

Northern head coach Kyle Nystrom is well aware of that and that’s why he called Saturday’s home contest against Wayne State a “must-win” game.

“Right now, we’ve got our backs against the wall,” he said Tuesday. “This is a must-win game. We’ve got to get our act together.”

That win won’t come easy, though, as the Warriors (2-2) have already turned their year around. After starting with two losses, WSU blew out Quincy on the road, and last week knocked off undefeated and then-No. 25 Saginaw Valley State, jumping out to a 17-point lead and holding off the Cardinals in the second half.

“They’re playing good, they’re playing really good,” Nystrom said about Wayne State. “I think their top three players that I’ve watched on film that I like are one of their running backs, (No.) 32 (James Hill). He’s a good player.

“Another marquee player they’ve got is No. 4 (Deiontae Nicholas). They play him everywhere. They play him at tailback, they play him at slot.

“So it gets a little bit difficult to nail down personnel packages because they rotate those guys through there. He’s a good player, and (Darece) Roberson (Jr.), their (No. 1) receiver is a pretty good player for them. He makes a lot of plays and their tight end (Nick Poterack), he’s playing pretty good. He does a good job for them.

“They present a lot of scheme and a lot of preparation because they do a lot of different things. We’re planning and getting ready and we’ve got to show all our guys all the looks and formations and all the play types.

“They did a nice job last year against us. They ran what I call a ‘power bounce’….

“Defensively, I would say they’re basically in a 4-3…. So they’re going to screw the box down on us and force us to do other things and just sit there and run the ball all day. We’re going to have to have answers for that. So that’s what we work on.”

The Wildcats definitely had their work cut out for them last week against Ferris, arguably the best team in the nation in NCAA Division II.

NMU had mixed results defensively, creating several takeaways, but giving up 350 rushing yards. Meanwhile, the Northern offense sputtered, managing only 10 points and 76 rushing yards. Nystrom was said he was “conflicted” when asked about the defensive performance.

“We had four takeaways on fumbles on defense and then we got one on special teams,” he said. “Trevor (Roberts) got that one (on special teams). That’s the first time in my life that we’ve had plus-five in takeaways and not won a football game.

“All those takeaways kept it closer and kept us in the game a lot longer than probably we would’ve been in it. When we played the right way, we played really well on defense.

“On offense, we struggled. There’s a couple reasons for that. The first thing is that we’re making mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. We’re pulling the wrong way, our assignments aren’t right and there’s no reason for it.

“And there’s no reason to come up with to tell you why we do that. And we’re getting it out of some of our older players, which is stifling.

“So we’ve had a long talk about that (Monday). We can’t afford miscues. Again, the line-of-scrimmage penalties. We had one player get three of them. That’s got to get better and that’s got to get better fast.

“We missed two field goals and they were long pokes. One was into the wind. We had the distance on them, we were just off to the left. C’mon, Daniel (Riser). Let’s go baby.

“We’ve got to make those happen when we have those opportunities. I’ve said it before, when you get those kinds of takeaways, you’ve got to cash in and we didn’t cash in.

“But they (the Bulldogs) were really good and their defense was very dominant and that was part of our hiccups, too, executing and putting some points on the board.”

The Wildcats try to execute and put points on the board starting at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Superior Dome.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.