Fifty two.
That's the number of points per game the Louisiana Tech offense has been putting up this season. The high-powered Bulldog offense put up scores over fifty against Houston, Rice, and Illinois, and scored 44 points in a six point road victory over Virginia last week. While a high-powered offensive attack implies that the quarterback is putting up an amazing amount of yards and touchdowns, that just isn't the case with Louisiana Tech.
In the case of this offense, their strength is running the football, where they've averaged over 6.5 yards per carry this season, although Colby Cameron, the Bulldogs quarterback, certainly isn't a pushover either. Cameron is 91-134 with 1,131 yards and 12 touchdowns this season in only four games.
The good news for the Rebels is that the defense isn't all that great, ranking 109th in the FBS in opponents points per game, giving up 37 points per game. The bad news is that the Rebels offense will most likely have to go toe to toe with the Bulldog offense if they want to be in a position to win in the 4th quarter, something that Nick Sherry and his still-maturing passing game most likely will not be able to do.
The offense has struggled to capitalize on turnovers with touchdowns and has also struggled to keep a drive from stalling out, whether that be because of a penalty or a sack that puts them behind schedule in the down and distance. In order to win on Saturday, the Rebels are going to have to find a way to keep drives moving and stay on the field. This is not just so that they will score points in order to keep pace with the Louisiana Tech offense, but to also keep that offense off the field and give them less possessions. The less possessions that the UNLV defense has to worry about, the more likely the Rebels are to get enough stops in order to stay close.
So in a nutshell, the Rebels offense has to find a way to stay on the field and score points when needed to keep the game close. In turn, the Rebel defense is also going to have to force a few turnovers (and have the offense capitalize on them) and get off the field on third down, something that they struggled with in the USU game.