FACTS & STATS: Site: Sam Boyd Stadium (41,800) -- Las Vegas, Nevada. Television: The Mtn. Home Record: CSU 2-3, UNLV 2-3. Away Record: CSU 1-3, UNLV 1-3. Neutral Record: CSU 0-0, UNLV 0-0. Conference Record: CSU 0-5, UNLV 1-4. Series Record: Colorado State leads, 12-4-1.

GAME NOTES: A couple of teams with identical overall records hit the field at Sam Boyd Stadium this weekend as the UNLV Rebels entertain the Colorado State Rams in a Mountain West Conference showdown in Sin City.

In the case of the Rams, they began 2009 well enough with three straight victories over the likes of Colorado, Weber State and Nevada, but since then the team has known nothing but defeat. On Halloween the team was treated to a 34-16 setback in league play by the Air Force Falcons, which means CSU has now dropped six in a row and all five of its MWC outings.

As for the Rebels, they too played well in the early going with two wins in three tries, topping both Sacramento State and Hawaii, while falling to nationally-ranked Oregon State by just two points at home. And like the Rams, UNLV has also been on a serious slide of late, losing five of the last six games. Last Saturday the team was stunted by nationally-ranked TCU in a 41-0 decision in Fort Worth which means, if the Rebels have any hopes of appearing in the postseason, the squad has to win out.

Last season CSU picked up a 41-28 win against the Rebels to move to 12-4-1 in the all-time series.

CSU put up 10 points in a span of less than seven minutes in the second quarter against Air Force on Saturday, but it made little difference as the Rams bowed yet again to a league foe at home. Even though quarterback Grant Stucker scored a touchdown on the ground for his team, the so-called passing attack was almost nonexistent for the Rams as Stucker and backup Jon Eastman combined to hit just 7-of-19 passes for a mere 87 yards. Leonard Mason rolled up a game-high 95 yards on the ground, but that too made little difference in the long run. Mason now has a team-best 606 yards on 126 carries and, when teamed with John Mosure (399 yards) the duo accounts for the bulk of the unit's 1,166 rushing yards and five of their touchdowns. Stucker, who has two TDs on the ground, has completed 52.7 percent of his attempts for 191 ypg, but in addition to tossing 12 TDs, he also has 12 picks against him and that's one of the reasons why Colorado State currently ranks seventh in the conference and 93rd in the nation with only 22.3 ppg.

Like every other team that suits up against the Air Force Falcons, the Rams got a potent dose of one of the best rushing attacks in the nation. The academy kept the ball on the ground 59 times and generated 271 yards and a pair of scores. However, Air Force also found some holes in the Colorado State pass defense and exploited those for another 111 yards and two TDs as well. Its not that often that the Falcons actually take flight in order to take advantage of defenses, but in this case it happened against Colorado State last weekend. Several facets of the CSU defense have been lacking this season, not the least of which is a secondary that is allowing 260.8 ypg to rank last in the Mountain West and 110th in the country this week. Because of all those yards opponents have been generating a healthy 30.8 ppg to this point and that's a number that has the Rams ranked seventh in the league and 100th in the nation. Perhaps if the big guys up front were doing better than just 4.3 tackles for loss per game (104th), things would be looking up for this group.

After snapping what had become a 20-game road conference losing streak the previous week, the Rebels fell right back into the loss column as the offense failed to spark at all against one of the toughest defenses in all of college football. UNLV logged just seven first downs, a feeble 42 yards passing and only 160 yards of total offense in the setback. Mike Clausen, who completed one of his two passes attempts to a teammate for four yards and had another picked off, was the leading rusher for the Rebels with his 65 yards on seven attempts. Omar Clayton did little to distinguish himself with 8-of-21 passing for 38 yards. The one bright spot was wideout Ryan Wolfe who collected five balls for 25 yards. Wolfe, a candidate for all-conference and All-America honors, already has 66 catches for 682 yards this season, yet he has made it into the end zone only twice. Phillip Payne has done his share of damage down the field with his 49 grabs for 505 yards and five scores, yet the combination of Clausen and Clayton at quarterback is still struggling with a collective 14 touchdowns and 11 touchdowns over the course of nine games. Granted, the Rebels have the third-best passing attack in the MWC with 237.4 ypg, but all of that action has served to deliver just 24.2 ppg to this point in the campaign.

Not only are the Horned Frogs one of the most dominant defenses in the game these days, quarterback Andy Dalton has also gotten his offense into gear and made defenses such as the one trotted out by head coach Mike Sanford look rather foolish at times. Granted, the Rebels did force three fumbles and recovered two, but how much damage did those forced errors really cause in the long run? Terrance Lee, who had one of those forced miscues, led the Rebels with his nine tackles, while Heivaha Mafi recovered a fumble and posted one of the team's two tackles for loss. TFLs are a lost art for the Rebels this season, the team averaging a mere four stops behind the line of scrimmage per game to rank second-to-last in the Mountain West and tied for 110th in the country heading into the month of November. Jason Beauchamp, who leads the program with his nine TFLs and is also first on the team with 58 overall stops, paces the group with his five and a half sacks, nearly half the unit's total right now.

Showing the worst overall defense in the entire conference, the Rebels have done little to show that they have what it takes to defeat Colorado State. However, if the Rams cannot settle on one quarterback and make it happen this week, UNLV might just get back into the win column again.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: UNLV 27, Colorado State 20

Saturday, November 7th, 10:00 p.m. (et)