The Hampton defense had its best performance of the season, holding another fairly effective early-season unit in Norfolk State to a paltry 104 total yards of offense from scrimmage in their 37-7 victory. The Pirates will be hard-pressed to duplicate that defensive output against one of the more prolific and diverse offenses in HBCU football. How close they come to doing so could prove to be the difference in a game between two teams that are almost mirror images of each other. Conversely, the Howard Bison defense seemed to let their foot off of the gas pedal a bit in the 2nd half of their win against D2 SIAC foe Morehouse. they allowed 3 passing touchdowns to the Maroon Tigers, though the box score doesn't convey exactly how dominant Howard was defensively during stretches of the game. They'll need to play a more consistent game through 4 quarters in order to really have a chance to put this game away.