Perhaps only when the Hawai'i and New Mexico State football teams get together could a 49-30 game be termed "pretty much a defensive struggle."

At least that is how NMSU head coach Hal Mumme likes to describe last year's Warrior victory in Las Cruces, N.M. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, we suspect.

Mumme likes to joke that the defensive coordinators "just wanted to keep (the offenses) under 1,000 yards."

Under all the snappy one-liners you suspect he longs to see what many of us would relish: a shootout Saturday night at Aloha Stadium. After two seasons of remarkably similar scores (49-30 and 49-28) that have only hinted at the explosiveness that could be unleashed, who wouldn't want a knockdown, pass-happy thriller? This is, after all, Western Athletic Conference football and if you can't get a score-a-thon from these two head coaches, these two quarterbacks and their teams, when will you?

And, therein lies the conflict. Here come the Aggies and a matchup the Las Vegas oddsmakers tell us carries an over-under betting line of 79-80 points. But while the heart pleads for an arenaball offensive overload, the mind counsels "defense" first.

The ones that are topped by UH caps, anyway. The ones that keep sight of the bigger picture for which a Bowl Championship Series appearance is the prize.

In an 8-4 season it matters little in the national picture whether UH wins close or going away. But this season, as we have been reminded by the BCS rankings each of the last two weeks, the ground rules are different.

Such conflicts between being a thrill-seeking ticket buyer and a fan with an eye on the long term are the price to be paid when every game could turn out to be the potential difference between playing Tulsa in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl or drawing Texas in the Fiesta Bowl.

When Mumme says, "everybody wants to be like Boise State but when we look at our league and when we do things, we try to emulate Hawai'i a lot," you'd like to see how they match up when their quarterbacks are really firing away at their best.

On one hand you'd like to see Colt Brennan and Chase Holbrook go at it for four furious quarters of aerial offense. Or, at least 3 1/2.

On the other, however, the Warriors need for Brennan to have a lights-out game while the defense takes away the potential for a shootout.

Much as there is a craving for four-quarter drama and edge-of-the-seat excitement, what the Warriors could use is some heavy-handed domination in which the points that are put across are theirs.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.