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FACTS & STATS: Site: Sam Boyd Stadium (36,800) -- Las Vegas, Nevada. Television: The Mountain. Home Record: CSU 1-2, UNLV 1-1. Away Record: CSU 2-1, UNLV 0-4. Neutral Record: CSU 0-1, UNLV 0-0. Conference Record: CSU 1-1, UNLV 0-1. Series Record: Colorado State leads, 13-5-1.

GAME NOTES: One of three programs in the Mountain West Conference still without a league victory, the UNLV Rebels try to make it happen once again on Saturday as they host the Colorado State Rams at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Outside of a stunning 40-20 home win against Hawaii back in the middle of September, very little has gone right for the Rebels who are off to a 1-5 start and have dropped three in a row overall. The team last appeared on the gridiron on October 15 when in Laramie the Rebels were crushed by Wyoming in the conference opener, 41-14. Beside the scoring burst versus Hawaii, the Rebels have scored a combined 54 points in five defeats.

As for the Rams, they took a break from MWC action last weekend when they tangled with the UTEP Miners on the road and suffered a 31-17 loss at the Sun Bowl. Like the Rebels, CSU has fallen in three straight yet the team still has a chance at recording back-to-back conference road wins for the first time since 2002, thanks to having taken out woeful New Mexico in Albuquerque in the season opener, 14-10.

Colorado State captured an easy 43-10 win at home against the Rebels, which means the Rams are now ahead in the all-time series by a count of 13-5-1.

The Rams struggled to survive against UTEP last week, the team converting just 4-of-16 on third down and generating a mere 255 yards of total offense on 76 snaps. The lone offensive TD for the visitors didn't come until the fourth quarter when running back Chris Nwoke hit the end zone from 24 yards out. Nwoke carried the ball 23 times and finished with a team-best 93 yards, but the squad was left with only 93 net yards due to the fact that quarterback Pete Thomas was sacked seven times for a loss of 42 yards. Thomas, who has been one of the most sacked signal-callers in the nation the last two seasons, converted 19-of-33 passes for 162 yards and an interception. Honestly, the pounding that Thomas takes from one week to the next makes you wonder how he continues to go on. After seven games this season the offensive line is permitting 3.3 sacks per game which is not only seventh in the conference but also 112th in the nation this week. Thomas has done his best to try and keep CSU functioning, but when not lying on his back Thomas and the offense are still averaging just 312.9 ypg which is 106th nationally.

If not for a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown by Momo Thomas in the second quarter, the Rams wouldn't have been nearly as competitive in the loss to UTEP. The run defense was thrashed about by the Miners as the hosts recorded 340 yards and three TDs on the ground, so it really didn't matter that the pass defense for the Rams allowed just eight completions and sacked QB Nick Lamaison twice. Two times this season Colorado State has permitted five rushing touchdowns in a single game, so opponents know exactly where to go in order to exploit the Rams. In the last two contests against Boise State and the Miners, the Rams have given up a combined 723 yards and eight TDs on the ground so it is easy to see why the program is ranked 116th in the nation with 223.3 ypg allowed.

Last season when the Rebels won a total of just two games under first-year head coach Bobby Hauck the overall stats described a team that was struggling to stay competitive and was consistently being blown out of the water by most opponents. This year is pretty much the same for the Rebels who are ranked last in the conference and 117th in the nation in total offense with a mere 264.0 ypg. Running back Tim Cornett has tried to keep the ground attack somewhat respectable with his 300 yards and four touchdowns on 56 attempts, but beyond him the group has scored just one more rushing TD. Quarterback Caleb Herring's 52.9 percent passing accuracy means little when you consider that he has just as many passing TDs (five) as he does INTs and UNLV is putting up a woeful 131.8 ypg through the air (114th).

While Herring has pretty much been a tackling dummy for opponents who are delivering 3.8 sacks per game against the Rebels (119th), the defense for the Rebels has yet to discover just how powerful such plays can be on a regular basis. In fact, the UNLV defense has but 1.17 sacks per outing this year and that has them ranked seventh in the MWC and 104th in the country right now. Take away the three sacks the Rebels posted against Hawaii, a team which is known for passing the ball almost exclusively, and the average dips even more into obscurity. Opponents who have been able to move the ball against the Rebels, and that's pretty much all of them, have been highly successful in the red zone this season, scoring on all but three of 25 chances. If there were a silver lining to all of this it would be that those foes have scored touchdowns on 64 percent of the time that they've been inside the 20-yard line.

Neither one of these teams is going to set the world on fire, but it is clear that because the Rebels can't push their defense into the opposing backfield Thomas should have plenty of time to seek out receivers and keep himself standing upright.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Colorado State 31, UNLV 17