New Mexico State (2-5) rages on with their Sun Belt revenge tour this evening when they host top-of-the-conference Georgia Southern (5-1, 3-0 Sun Belt) with the hope of bucking their troublesome season-long trend of playing one-sided, uncomplimentary football.

That trend continued in last weekend’s 66-38 thrashing courtesy of Louisiana Lafayette, where NM State’s defense gave up nine touchdowns on 11 possessions and 759 yards of total offense to a middle-of-the-pack Ragin’ Cajuns side, forcing the Aggie offense to play from behind the eight ball for the entire game.

The early season script that saw a struggling, young offense be carried by a talented, experienced defense has completely flipped over the last two games, with the D giving up a Big 12-esque 53.5 points and 638.5 yards per game since NM State’s Homecoming game against Liberty.

“I told our team we need to play a good team game. It seems like every one of our games, one side plays well and the other side doesn’t,” head coach Doug Martin said. “We’ve got to get where we’re playing well as a team, balanced as a team… It’s more of a mentality than anything, so hopefully we can get there this week.”

With Georgia Southern’s potent triple option offense, led by quarterback Shai Wertz and running backs Wesley Fields and Monteo Garrett, putting up top-10 rushing production so far this season, defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani’s group will have to drastically improve if the Aggies are to avoid another thrashing.

According to linebacker Javahn Ferguson, though, the defense is eager to put last week’s embarrassment behind them, using that low feeling to fuel their fire heading into tonight’s matchup with GSU.

“It was one of those things where we weren’t on the same page as a defensive crew and everything was just clicking [for them]. It’s not easy to look at it as a positive, but that’s what you have to do if you want to move forward. You don’t want to let the last game lose you the next game,” Ferguson said of the team’s loss at LLU. “I feel like that’s one of the big things we’ve [been] focused on this week is trying to get that out of our system — using that bad taste in our mouth to kind of propel us to exactly where we need to be as a defense.”

On the other side of the field, the offense is finally starting to find its groove with Josh Adkins’ continued development as the starting quarterback, scoring at least 38 points and picking up at least 400 yards in back to back games since their open week, compared to measly 16.4 points and 273 yards per game averages put together through their first five games.

In addition to overall offensive improvement, Jason Huntley had the breakout game NM State fans have been waiting for, picking up 373 total scrimmage yards — the most single game total for any player in the FBS all season long — last week, including an electric 87 yard kickoff return for a touchdown that showed just how explosive of a weapon the junior running back can be when things are clicking.

“I’m trying to be more of a utility player, whether it’s special teams or receiving… I think the quarterback helps a lot, and Christian [Gibson] because I feel like at first [defenses] were respecting me too much, you know, they would load the box,” Huntley said when asked about the recent turnaround for both the offense and himself personally. “In the first couple of games, we were just trying to get established and the defense held us in there, but now that we’ve found out our problem, we got to kind of hold them in there, but all we got to do is play together and we’ll be fine.”

This will be the NM State offense’s toughest challenge with Adkins at the helm, with the GSU defense allowing more than 21 points just once in their lone loss of the season to then No. 2 Clemson and holding teams to just over 17 points per game through the first half of the season.

Georgia Southern are a surprise 5-1 after winning just two games all of last season but look the part of a true Sun Belt title contender in Chad Lunsford’s first full season in charge. NM State will have their hands full in the rebound effort, but if Martin can get a full game from his surging offense and banged-up but highly capable defense, the Aggies have a shot at pulling off the upset and recreating last year’s 35-27 come from behind win in Statesboro.

The game kicks off at a slightly earlier 4 P.M. time slot for what’ll be New Mexico State’s penultimate home contest of the season.