The numbers suggest Air Force’s season of extremes should continue in Las Vegas.

The Falcons feature the best scoring offense and worst scoring defense in the Mountain West and now face an unbeaten UNLV team equipped to challenge that struggling defense but not – at least in any obvious way – positioned to slow a rolling Air Force offensive attack.

“Should be a pretty exciting day on Saturday,” said Runnin’ Rebels coach Dan Mullen, who called the Falcons’ offense one of the most explosive in America. “We’re going to have to really execute on offense and try to keep up with them, score with them.”

Air Force will seek to score 30-plus points in the first six games of the season for the first time since 1998.

At 36.5 points per game, Air Force ranks 30th nationally. Only the 1985 and 1989 Falcons teams, both with 37.2 points per game, finished a season with a higher scoring average in program history.

Air Force (222.2 passing yards per game) is on pace to obliterate the top passing mark (170.7 yards per game in 2005) for the program in its option era, which dates back to 1980.

In terms of total yards, Air Force’s 467.8 per game is on pace to rank second in school history to the 489.8 in 2017.

Sophomore quarterback Liam Szarka is the first player in Mountain West history with three consecutive games of at least 200 yards passing and 100 yards passing and the first nationally to do it since future NFL MVP Lamar Jackson did it for Louisville in 2015-16.

Cade Harris (446) already has the most receiving yards for a Falcons player since 2021. Bruin Fleischmann had the most receptions (six) and yards (166) for a tight end in the Troy Calhoun era (since 2007) last week at Navy. Dylan Carson, at 1,341 career yards, is the six-leading rusher all-time among Air Force fullbacks.

It is a loaded offense that has been historically explosive for Air Force.

Lining up on the other side will be UNLV, which has given up 31 points to Idaho State and 38 at Miami (Ohio) during its 5-0 start. The Rebels rank 124^th in passing defense (271.2 yards per game), 113^th in total defense (413.4) and 85^th in scoring defense (26.0).

It’s reasonable to expect another big performance from the Falcons. But Air Force (1-5, 0-3) has lost five in a row because, in large part, all of this offense hasn’t been enough.

There are 136 teams playing FBS football in 2025, among them Air Force ranks 130^th in scoring defense (37.8 points per game), 131^st in total defense (476.8 yards per game), 132^nd in third-down defense (.550), 132^nd in passing defense (312.4 yards per game) and 101^st in rushing defense (164.2).

The past four weeks have seen a Falcons opponent win its conference’s offensive player of the week honors following their game – Utah State quarterback Bryson Barnes, Boise State running back Dylan Riley, Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado in the Mountain West, followed by Navy quarterback Blake Horvath in the American Athletic Conference.

UNLV (5-0, 1-0) quarterback Anthony Colandrea, a transfer from Virginia, took Mountain West Player of the Week honor twice (Sept. 1 and 8) when Air Force did not play against conference teams.

The Rebels are scoring 35.6 points per game with top-40 national ranks in rushing offense, passing efficiency, third downs and time of possession.

Note: Air Force did not provide media availability this week as the sports information staff has been limited by the federal government shutdown.