UNLV, Air Force should light up the scoreboard

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — UNLV football coach Tony Sanchez hope it’s not a shootout, that his defense will make enough plays so that the only true offense produced Saturday is by the Rebels.

He might get his wish, but the numbers point to a high-scoring game by both sides when the Rebels visit Air Force.

Both teams score a lot, and both teams give up a lot.

The winner of the 11 a.m. game at Falcon Stadium very well could need to score in the upper 30s — if not higher. AT&T SportsNet will televise the game, and the Falcons are 7½-point favorites.

“I hope we don’t give up a bunch of points,” Sanchez said. “We expect our defense to play better. We haven’t played great defense. There’s been a couple of times I felt we didn’t tackle as well as we could’ve in space, hadn’t been able to apply as much pressure as we want to on the quarterbacks, and we’ve got to get better. It’s time to start now.

“I want to score a bunch of points, and I don’t want them to score any. I don’t know how realistic that is, but that’s the mindset our guys have to have in preparing for this team.”

This series between UNLV (2-3, 1-1 Mountain West) and Air Force (1-4, 0-2) has a history of producing lots of points. The winning team has averaged 38 points and has never scored fewer than 24.

Big Ten football from 40 years ago this is not.

They haven’t met in three years, but the Rebels have won two of the past three games between the two, including the most recent at Air Force in 2013.

A victory would put UNLV halfway to bowl eligibility, with three of its following four games at home.

Air Force brings in the conference’s top-scoring offense, averaging 36.4 points, and as usual, the Falcons sit atop the Mountain West in rushing offense with a 287.8-yard average.

Arion Worthman quarterbacks the triple option that is based on so much deception that Sanchez thought it best to devote time in spring practice, training camp and in the September bye week to working on limiting its success. And this week in practice, the Rebels used a Nerf ball and had defenders focus on maintaining their assignments instead of where the ball might go.

“I’ve played in a double-wing offense,” UNLV defensive tackle Mike Hughes Jr. said. “I was a tackle in (Palo Verde) high school. I kind of understand that mindset in what they’re going to bring.”

As much as the Falcons score, they also yield 32.2 points per game. They are especially vulnerable in defending the run, allowing a 253.2-yard average, second worst in the conference.

That’s a good matchup for UNLV, which is third in the league with 265.6 yards rushing per game. Even so, Sanchez said it’s important the Rebels find success through the air because the Falcons probably will load up the box to stop the run.

No matter the tactic, the Rebels will need to score.

And score a lot.

UNLV averages 31.2 points and gives up 33.4.

“They blitz a lot, so we’re going to throw a lot,” Rebels wide receiver Kendal Keys said. “We’ve got to put up a lot of points. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.