The New Mexico State football continues their mini-run against Mountain West programs this weekend as they look to get their first win of the season against the 2018 conference-champion Fresno State Bulldogs at Aggie Memorial Stadium.

A series of uncomplimentary performances, capped off with the offensively dominant and defensively anemic 55-52 loss to New Mexico last Saturday, have dropped the Aggies to 0-4 start to the season. The Aggies have been heavy underdogs entering each game — save the Rio Grande Rivalry, which is never an easy outing anyway — and this weekend is a lot of the same, Fresno State (who are an impressive 22-6 under Jeff Tedford) checking in as 20-point favorites.

“We knew the schedule was going to be tough the first five or six game,” head coach Doug Martin said. “We’ve just got to go try to get the next one.”

While the result of last weekend’s battle for New Mexico was deflating for the Aggies, the sudden boom on offense, consisting of nearly 500 total yards of offense and a team-high in scoring by a mile, is a good sign for an NM State group that could barely string together a drive two weeks ago.

“Our offensive team walked out there as confident as I’ve ever had an offensive team play [last] Saturday, because they prepared like that last week…,” Martin said. “It’s all about preparation.”

As good as they’ve been, and still could be, Fresno State has gotten of to a less than ideal start. Like NM State, o-line troubles have hurt the offense, letting quarterback Jorge Reyna get sacked 10 times in three games. The rushing attack, which is 92nd in the country, has yet to really get off the ground too, with the team averaging just 136 yards per game.

An eight point loss to No. 21 USC and a brutal double-overtime loss to Minnesota are hardly things to scoff at, though, and Fresno State took care of business in their lone win of the season against Sacramento State last weekend.

“It’s going to be a bigger challenge this week with Fresno, I will tell you that Fresno should really be a 3-0 football team right now,” Martin said. “They had a one score game with USC…Minnesota was lucky to beat them… I think Fresno’s probably the best team we play other than Alabama.”

The Bulldogs’ defense has done an admirable job to this point in the season as well, totaling seven sacks, two interceptions and six forced fumbles in only three games.

“Defensively, [Fresno State] is not much of a blitz team,” Martin said. “Their down 4 guys are really impressive, the interior guys, it’s like having two Roy Lopez’s…it’s probably the best linebacker core we play against.”

Last time Fresno State came to Las Cruces, the Aggies won in a shootout, taking down now-Oakland Raider quarterback Derek Carr, who threw a whopping 3,544 yard in 2011, 48-45, so the upset isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

A win Saturday would be a season-changer for NM State, serving as an ideal momentum boost heading into their homecoming game against Liberty on Oct. 5.