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FACTS & STATS: Site: Bulldog Stadium (41,031) -- Fresno, California. Television: None. Home Record: SJSU 3-2, FSU 2-3. Away Record: SJSU 1-5, FSU 2-3. Neutral Record: SJSU 0-0, FSU 0-1. Conference Record: SJSU 2-4, FSU 3-3. Series Record: Fresno State leads, 38-33-1.

GAME NOTES: The San Jose State Spartans bring their 2011 campaign to a close this weekend as they challenge the Fresno State Bulldogs in a Western Athletic Conference battle at Bulldog Stadium.

The Spartans are shooting for back-to-back wins for just the second time this season after the team slipped by Navy last weekend in a 27-24 triumph. Back in late September/early October the team defeated New Mexico State and Colorado State in consecutive matches, but still this is a program that has won a total of just four games this season and is 2-4 in conference play.

As for the Bulldogs, they too have won consecutive games only once before this season with their triumphs over North Dakota and Idaho in September and now they are trying to make it happen again. Last week against a depleted Hawaii squad, FSU survived a 24-21 decision to snap a three-game slide and move to 3-3 in WAC play. Unlike the Spartans, FSU has one more regular-season outing versus San Diego State next weekend at Qualcomm Stadium.

SJSU trails the all-time series, 38-33-1, between the in-state rivals, the Bulldogs taking four in a row and 16 of the last 17 matchups dating back to the early 1990s. The Bulldogs won the most recent matchup, 33-18, on the road last season.

For the third week in a row the Spartans produced at least 20 points in the first half and led at the break, but again the team had to hold on for the win against the Midshipmen. Matt Faulkner connected on 33-of-44 passes for 345 yards and one touchdown, while Brandon Rutley busted open for 132 yards and a couple of scores on the ground, not to mention catching eight passes for 101 yards to match Ryan Otten in both of those departments. Rutley has been a solid performer coming out of the backfield for the Spartans, generating 845 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground in an effort to take some of the pressure off Faulkner who, while having connected on 65 percent of his pass attempts for 278.6 ypg, has one less TD pass (11) than INT (12) at this stage of the season.

Like every other team that has gone up against Navy, the Spartans were tasked with shutting down the running attack as best they could and they did to an extent as they limited the Midshipmen to 254 yards and three touchdowns on 49 attempts. Better still, SJSU held the Academy to only 90 passing yards and sacked Kriss Proctor three times, with Travis Johnson doing a good portion of the damage with 11 total tackles, 3.5 stops behind the line and 1.5 sacks to his credit. Even though Johnson was putting together a top-notch effort, the fact remains that the Spartans as a whole this season are averaging just 1.45 sacks per game which is seventh in the conference and tied for 88th in the country entering play this week, while the squad's 4.9 TFLs per outing places them seventh in the WAC and 91st nationally right now.

The one-two bunch of Robbie Rouse and Derek Carr worked to perfection last Saturday night as the former ran for 176 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries and the latter converted 19-of-29 passes for 271 yards and two touchdowns. More importantly for the young quarterback, Carr was sacked just once and didn't throw an interception. In addition to having one of his better running games of the season Rouse also caught six balls for another 51 yards for the visitors against Hawaii. Rouse now ranks second in the conference and 10th in the nation with 122.0 ypg rushing, his 10 TDs making up the majority of the unit's 15 rushing scores this season. Carr continues to get better with every week and is now converting almost 63 percent of this throws for 266.5 ypg and has 23 TDs, against only seven interceptions on 383 attempts which is pretty impressive given how he was thrown into the fire this season.

Usually opponents that enter Aloha Stadium have to worry about a full-fledged aerial attack, but for the most part the Bulldogs were able to control that aspect of the game since the Warriors were trotting out backup signal-callers after the season-ending injury to Bryant Moniz. FSU did permit 244 yards and two touchdowns through the air, but the Bulldogs also notched four sacks to help slow down the attack. Once again an integral part of the unit, Logan Harrell made both of his tackles behind the line and added another sack to his stat line. Currently tied for second on the team in total stops with 66, Harrell is by far the top producer when it comes to TFLs with his 16 and is also first in sacks with six over the course of 11 games. Add to that 10 quarterback hurries and three forced fumbles and it is hard to find another player in the WAC who is as good at his position.

The combination of Rouse and Carr is tough to match these days, but putting together a solid effort on both sides of the ball for a full 60 minutes continues to be an issue for the Bulldogs. Nevertheless, the team would like to show the hometown faithful that they are at least moving in the right direction these days.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Fresno State 21, San Jose State 20