HOUSTON, Texas – The Lamar University Cardinals football team will look to put an end to a two-game skid Saturday but they will have to do it away from Beaumont. The Cardinals (3-4/2-3 Southland) will be in Houston, Texas Saturday for a Halloween showdown against Houston Baptist. The Huskies enter week in a similar position trying to stop a three-game slide. HBU (2-6/0-5 SLC) is still looking for its first conference victory of the season.
 
"We are getting ready to play a young Houston Baptist team that is improving each and every week," said head coach Ray Woodard. "You can see it on film how much they are improving, and eventually they will break through. We have to be ready to go, because we don't want it to be against us."
 
Led by the nation's leading rusher, LU brings one of the league's top offenses into Saturday's game. The Cards lead the league in rushing offense (270.1 ypg) and are second in scoring (38.4 ppg) and total (456.7 ypg) offense, but have struggled at times on the defensive end. LU is currently ranked ninth in the Southland in total defense and 10^th in scoring defense.
 
For the Huskies, it has been the exact opposite story. HBU is currently ranked third in the Southland at stopping the pass and fifth against the run. The Huskies are surrendering an average of 191 rushing yards per game, but offensively rank near the bottom of the league in every category.
 
"HBU is a program that is this year where we were a couple of years ago," said Woodard. "When you look at their depth chart you see a lot of freshmen and sophomores on it. There is a senior here or there that are transfers because they haven't had a full class of players come through the program yet. When you watch the film, you can see a team that has improved so much from last year. Each one of their units are playing better together. They played a good Southeastern football team very tough this past weekend.
 
"Our guys better realize that this is a vastly improved team from last year. They are hungry for their first conference win of the season. We still have some guys on our team that remember what it was like as a young program fighting for their first league win each year. If we're not ready to go, it will be a long afternoon for us," added Woodard.
 
Saturday's game appears to have both team's strengths on a collision course – the Huskies ability to stop the run, against LU's junior running back Kade Harrington who is averaging better than 250 rushing yards per game in conference play.
 
Despite Harrington's success on the ground, the Cardinals will be looking to reverse what has become a negative trend early in games. LU has dug itself an early hole – falling behind by at least two touchdowns – in three of the past four games forced to spend the rest of the game playing catch up. The Red and White hopes that history repeats itself as last year the Cardinals jumped out to a 42-0 lead against Houston Baptist before HBU was able to dent the scoreboard. The Cardinals are coming off their worst offensive output of the season. LU could manage only 17 points, 15 first downs and turned the ball over five times in a rain-soaked loss to Central Arkansas.
 
Saturday's game is slated to kick off at 2 p.m. from Husky Stadium, and it will be televised via tape delay on ROOT Sports. It will mark the sixth time this season Big Red has been televised.
 
-LU CARDINALS-