CFB Week 6 Thursday

SAM HOUSTON STATE @ NEW MEXICO STATE

---

Well, we should probably start off by pointing out that the New Mexico New Mexico State game wasn't this close. This is a bit of a misleading score. New Mexico State scored on a WR reverse pass trifck play and a fumble return TD to go up 17-7. From that moment on, they got beat 31-3. This was a blowout in every aspect.

Now, there is some good news for New Mexico State... we have a really solid data point. They do have an FBS win... it was actually their only home FBS game so far... and it was against a Tulsa team that's really not too bad this year. And if you're thinking "oh Kyle it was against Tulsa's backup QB"... well actually Kirk Francis started this game. He got injured late in the 2nd quarter and New Mexico State was up 3-0. Tulsa had gotten the ball 6 times with Kirk Francis in the game and had zero points.

You like to see that if you're a New Mexico State fan... cuz just like Tulsa, Sam Houston State runs a pass-first offense all the way.

BAD NEWS: NMSU LB - TYLER MARTINEZ LEFT UNM GAME INJURED. THIS IS NEW MEXICO STATE'S CAPTAIN AND BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER. THEIR OTHER STARTING LB IS SONE AUPIU. HE MISSED LAST GAME INJURED AND HE'S ALSO QUESTIONABLE.

And Phil Longo is really not off to the best start here. Yes, it's his first year with the program and it's not like we were expecting anything spectacular... but he's got an experienced QB and he's supposed to be a creative offensive play-caller. This offense has looked bad.

This is a very big game for Sam Houston State. Up to this point, it hasn't looked good. They're 0-4 (Hunter Watson did miss the Hawaii game)... but they were supposed to lose those games. Phil Longo needs to show us some offense in this game. If he moves to 0-5 with a loss to New Mexico State and the offense looks stale... all of the sudden, we're moving into the "Year 1 was a failure" territory.

On the other side of the ball... this is about as bad as it gets in the FBS. There's a very good chance we're looking at the worst offense in the FBS against the worst defense in the FBS.

These are New Mexico State's wins. These are their positive data points. This is what New Mexico State playing good offense looks like.

New Mexico State was struggling to move the ball against Bryant... and honestly, even though Sam Houston State's defense is bad... it's actually over-performing a bit. Obviously, they got lit up by Texas... and Arch Manning just flexed on em.

If you take out the Texas game... it's really not THAT bad. Keep in mind... they play an extremely fast pace so the final score is not always a great indication of how the defense played. Against WKU, UNLV and Hawaii... 3 far superior programs... these numbers really aren't that terrible for Sam Houston.

I'm on the Bearkats here. I took the ML at -115.