The Air Force Falcons have come up short against some good teams this season, but you can see the progress they've made as they have moved forward. At the same time, the fear is that the UNLV Rebels, who at one time looked like they could be in pretty good position for a spot in a minor bowl game, may be regressing, although not necessarily through fault of their own. But that's the way the ball bounces, and so these teams will line up at Sam Boyd Stadium on Friday night for Mountain West Conference action. It will be televised, starting at 10 PM ET, by CBS Sports Network, and while BetAnySports customers are watching it live, they can place wagers using the facilities available through Live Betting Ultra.

Air Force played some teams tough in the early part of its schedule, losing by six points at Florida Atlantic and 10 points at Utah State, which is now a rampaging squad. Maybe they got to a turning point when they routed Navy 35-7 a couple of weeks ago, and they did a great job against the Midshipmen and their option attack, holding them to 178 total yards. Last week it was a slow, plodding game against San Diego State, which also went through a weather delay, but Air Force covered the spread in a 21-17 loss, with a real opportunity to end their seven-game losing streak to the Aztecs.

Both of these teams have suffered injuries to quarterbacks lately. Air Force had to replace DJ Hammond with Isaiah Sanders last week, although that was not much of a transition, since Hammond had himself replaced an injured Sanders just a couple of games before. For UNLV, the change was more significant, as Armani Rogers went down with a toe injury, with Max Gilliam, a junior college transfer, having to fill in.

In the college football betting odds posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, Air Force is the double-digit favorite, although the line has been going downward:

Air Force Falcons -10
UNLV Rebels +10

Over 56 points -110
Under 56 points -110

The UNLV offense with Rogers at the helm was quite different. This is a team, under head coach Tony Sanchez (a high school legend around Las Vegas) that was almost wholly dependent on the run, and indeed Rogers was the top rusher among all FBS quarterbacks. With his size (6-5, 225 pounds) he was a legitimate bruiser too. And of course, he was complemented by Lexington Thomas, also in the top 25 in rushing, who just went over the 3000-yard mark for his career. Thomas suffered a head injury in the third quarter of last week's game against Utah State, although he should be good to go for this one.

But changing quarterbacks has been problematic. Max Gilliam, who was once signed at Cal-Berkeley, has some mobility, but he is not the kind of signal-caller you would look to if you wanted someone to spearhead a run-based offense. And that has been very evident. Gilliam has been relatively shaky in his first two games, completing less than 50% of his passes, and only throwing for 5.2 yards per attempt. Last week, in a 59-28 loss to Utah State, he was sacked seven times, and much of his 250 passing yards came in "garbage time," as the Aggies went up 42-7 at the half. By the way, during that time, Thomas was indeed in the game.

UNLV's offensive line is not necessarily set up for pass blocking. The seven sacks might be some tangible evidence of that, but also this team was flagged for no less than FIVE false starts. There might be a natural tendency to revert back to an attack that is very heavily "grounded," and we wouldn't blame Sanchez for that. But Air Force isn't badly equipped for something like that, as they have allowed only 101 rushing yards per game, eighth-best in the nation. Only four teams in the entire country have allowed fewer first downs to their opponents, and only three have been better in denying points to their foes in the red zone.

Air Force will be fine, regardless of which signal-caller they use, even if they are not as machine-like their option as they have been in the past. They have the fundamental edges, enough for us to lay the points here.

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