“We’ve got to play a lot of people,” Murphy said. “We see our defensive line as two-deep.”

On the other side of the ball, the Huskies will attempt to do what neither the Bears nor Holy Cross have been able to do this season—find an answer to Fitzpatrick.

The Northeastern coaching staff doesn’t expect to handle him any differently than any other quarterback, however.

The Huskies will mix coverages and blitz heavily to prevent Fitzpatick from finding his rhythm, hoping to keep the pocket shrinking without allowing him to slip away.

“I think you need to keep him off guard and mix the best you can, try to disguise it as best you can,” Brown said.

Part of that package will be making sure that all of Fitzpatrick’s many weapons are taken away. Throwing touchdowns to four different receivers last weekend, he was able to find every hole in the secondary once he found his groove, whether it was junior Adam Jenkins breaking off the line or sophomore running back Ryan Tyler finding space in the flat.

“Each coverage that you run has the ability to cover all five guys,” Brown said. “You’ve just got to take the best pieces of what you have.”

Key to his estimation of how to stop Fitzpatrick in the air is shutting down junior wideout Brian Edwards, who has exploded onto the scene in the last two games.

“He’s really solid, got great hands, runs great routes,” Brown said. He’s picked up right where Morris has left off. But we think we’re really solid on pass defense. We think we have very capable corners in the guys we have.”

Notes: Junior wide receiver Rodney Byrnes will most likely return to the lineup for the Crimson on Saturday. Byrnes injured his left ankle on a kick return in the third quarter of last weekend’s game. Murphy will wait until game time to make a final decision.

Freshman running back Clifton Dawson returns to the team after serving his one-game suspension for an undisclosed violation of team rules. He is expected to play much the same role he did against Holy Cross in the season opener.

Junior quarterback Garrett Schires, who suffered a first-grade MCL sprain in the fourth quarter of last weekend’s game against Brown, is back to full-strength and will serve as Fitzpatrick’s backup this week.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.