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FACTS & STATS: Site: Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (30,000) -- Annapolis, Maryland. Television: CBSCSN. Home Record: Air Force 2-0, Navy 2-0. Away Record: Air Force 1-1, Navy 0-2 Neutral Record: Air Force 0-0, Navy 0-0. Conference Record: Air Force 2-0, Navy 0-0. Series Record: Air Force leads, 25-16.

GAME NOTES: Bidding to win the coveted Commander-in-Chief's Trophy for the seventh consecutive year, the Navy Midshipmen get all hands on deck this weekend as they welcome the Air Force Falcons to Annapolis.

Navy has won six straight meetings with the Falcons, yet it is Air Force that owns a 25-16 edge in the all-time series between the two academies.

The Falcons are off to a 3-1 start for the third straight year under head coach Troy Calhoun and have won two straight, thanks to a 26-14 Mountain West Conference win over San Diego State last Saturday at home in Colorado. The league victory was actually the second in as many weeks for the Falcons, who are currently first in the MWC standings as a result. The lone setback on the team's schedule was a 20-13 road loss to Minnesota in the second week of the season.

As for the Midshipmen, they threw a scare into nationally-ranked Ohio State in the opener before bowing in a 31-27 decision, one of two losses on the campaign already for the squad. Last week, Navy hosted Western Kentucky, a team that owned the longest losing streak in the nation at 11 games heading in and saw it extended to a dozen in the 38-22 final. While Navy will close out the 2009 campaign against Army as usual, the Falcons will battle the Black Knights at home on November 7th.

Aside from the typical punishing play by the running game for the Falcons again last week, the offense did very little in earning the team the win over SDSU. In fact, Air Force failed to score a single offensive touchdown in the contest, instead relying on the defense and the leg of kicker Erik Soderberg who made good on four of his six field goal attempts and earned national recognition for his efforts. Running back Savier Stephens was just one piece of the puzzle with his team-best 71 yards on 11 carries, while Jared Tew chipped in 68 yards on 23 attempts for a squad that finished with 243 yards on 58 tries. Getting the call at quarterback for an injured Tim Jefferson, who is listed as questionable for this weekend with an ankle sprain, was Connor Dietz who converted 3-of-6 passes for 51 yards. One of the most powerful and relentless rushing attacks in recent years, the Falcons are once again ranked first in the nation with their 319 ypg on the ground and are, of course, second-to-last in passing with just 87.8 ypg. Having given up just two sacks, tops in the nation, is more a product of an offensive scheme that rarely sees the quarterback settle into the pocket rather than a stout offensive line.

As stated earlier, the Falcons survived on the strength of Soderberg's leg and the heavy pressure applied by the defense last Saturday. More specifically, Reggie Rembert brought home the win thanks to his two interceptions, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery which he returned 47 yards for the first touchdown of the game. Rembert, who also tallied a team-best seven tackles, was named the MWC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts. While his overall numbers were not quite as impressive, Anthony Wright also played a key role in the contest by returning an interception 47 yards for a touchdown as well. With so many takeaways last weekend it shouldn't come as a surprise that Air Force is among the best in the nation in turnover margin, ranking second in the country at plus-3.25 per game. Because Air Force refuses to put the ball in the air, the squad is one of seven schools at the moment that has yet to throw an interception. Already this season the Falcons have scored four defensive touchdowns, contributing to their 37 ppg.

Against one of the worst programs in college football, the Midshipmen drafted quarterback Ricky Dobbs to lead them back into the win column and that's exactly what happened in the 16-point victory for the academy. After closing out the first half with a TD pass to Cory Finnerty, Dobbs proceeded to register three straight rushing touchdowns in the second half to put the game out of reach. Dobbs finished the contest 4-of-5 passing for 100 yards and led the team with 143 yards on 29 rushing attempts. One of a stable of players who is ready to handle the ball coming out of the backfield, Dobbs leads the team with his 73.5 ypg on the ground. As a group, Navy is currently sixth in the nation with 244.5 ypg rushing after delivering 373 yards on 64 attempts last week. Similar to Air Force, the Midshipmen do very little in the way of passing the ball. In fact, the 29-yard TD pass by Dobbs with less than three minutes to play in the first half versus WKU, was his first attempt of the contest. Navy is 118th nationally with a mere 112 ypg through the air, but unlike the Falcons, this academy has surrendered 2.75 sacks per game, ranking them 100th in the country this week.

Take away the 58 combined points scored by supposed powers from the BCS conferences -- Ohio State and Pittsburgh -- and the scoring defense for Navy has looked rather favorable thus far. The pass defense has permitted 221.3 ypg, ranking the squad 71st in the nation, but even with all of those yards piled up the four previous opponents have managed to connect on just four aerial touchdowns. Considering two of those were by the desperate Hilltoppers last weekend, the Midshipmen have to be rather proud of their efforts thus far. Averaging eight tackles per game at the moment, Ross Pospisil seems to be making quite a number of plays, especially since 17 of those stops have been of the solo variety. Much further down the tackles list is Craig Schaefer who has but nine tackles, yet three of those have been sacks to lead the team to this point. The squad has come up with four interceptions in as many games, but after forcing the same number of fumbles, Navy has just two recoveries of miscues by opponents.

The games between the academies always seem to take on a life of their own, defying trends set by the teams previously. Even though Navy has had the upper hand against the Falcons for a number of years now, coach Calhoun might have the right stuff to get his team over the hump this time out.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Air Force 23, Navy 17