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Game Preview: FAU vs WKU

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Game Preview: FAU vs WKU



Owls will likely look to pound it out against Hilltoppers behind line's improvement

After an emotional win and dominate performance over rival FIU, Florida Atlantic football returns to action Saturday afternoon on the road against a struggling Western Kentucky team.

The Hilltoppers recently held the nation’s longest losing streak of 26-straight games, until they defeated Louisiana-Lafayette in the program’s first win in two years. However, that win lost some of its luster when the team was blown out 33-6 by North Texas a week ago.

Despite the problems Western Kentucky has faced over the years, they have always managed to keep games with the Owls close. FAU is 2-0 all time against WKU, but the victories have been won by only a combined 10-points.

“We’re treating it like another game, the last two years we have been with them, it’s been a dogfight,” junior safety Marcus Bartels said.

FAU won 24-20 two years ago, and came from behind last season to win 29-23, thanks to running back Alfred Morris’s 122 yards on the ground. Western Kentucky this year finds themselves with new leadership under first-year Head Coach Willie Taggart, but some holes from the previous seasons still haven’t been filled.

One of those gaps has been the Hilltoppers inability to stop the run, as this season they field one of the worst run defenses in the Sun Belt Conference, giving up an average of 199.13 rushing yards per game. Last week in the loss to North Texas, the unit allowed a season-high 311 rushing yards and four touchdowns via the run.

“We’re going to try and go in there and exploit it,” Morris said of the defense. “We’re going to make the goal to rush for at least 200-yards, so we’re going to try and spread the ball around as much as possible.”

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