THE SERIES: Western Illinois trails in their all-time series with Missouri State by a margin of 16-17-1. Last season, in their first meeting since 2013, the Leathernecks snapped a five-game losing streak to the Bears with a 38-35 victory. After blowing a 31-14 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, Devon Moore's one-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-goal with 43 seconds left put Western Illinois back in front for the win. The Leathernecks are looking for consecutive wins over Missouri State for the first time since 2007-08.

THE RANKINGS: Western Illinois ranks 14th in the STATS FCS 'Top 25' poll and 17th in the FCS Coaches poll.

FINDING ANOTHER FIRST: Thanks to a 38-29 win at Northern Iowa, Western Illinois has started their season 4-1 for the second consecutive year. It's also just the second time since the 2003 season that the Leathernecks have started a campaign 4-1. However, in the 113 prior seasons of Western Illinois football, the Leathernecks had never started 4-1 with all four wins coming on the road until this year. On Saturday against Missouri State, Western Illinois will vie for their second straight 5-1 start. It would be the first time with consecutive 5-1 starts to a season since doing so in both 2002 and 2003.

SCOUTING THE BEARS: Missouri State has been outscored by a 199-91 margin this season, or an average of 39.8-18.2 points per game. Calan Crowder has been the Bears' best weapon offensively, as he has a team-best 323 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 7.2 yards per carry. Missouri State quarterback Peyton Huslig has struggled this year, posting four touchdowns against seven interceptions and averaging just 185.2 yards per game. Huslig's favorite weapon is Malik Earl, who has caught 23 passes for 361 yards and two touchdowns. Jalen Esters has compiled 17 catches for 146 yards. On defense, McNeese Egbim is Missouri State's leading tackler with 29 stops, including 2.5 for a loss. The Bears have five different players with exactly one sack, but they have surrendered 14 sacks on offense. Jared Beshore's three interceptions lead the team so far this season.

McGUIRE'S ON FIRE: Western Illinois quarterback Sean McGuire completed 19-of-34 passes (55.9 percent) for 300 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in Western Illinois' 38-29 win at Northern Iowa. After a Northern Iowa score put the Panthers ahead 29-25 with 1:12 left, McGuire engineered a nine-play, 65 yard drive, finding Jaelon Acklin for a go-ahead 20-yard touchdown with six seconds remaining. In his 20 career starts, McGuire now has 10 300-yard passing games. Over the last 14 quarters of play, McGuire is 84-for-121 (69.4 percent) for 1,153 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception. He was named MVFC co-Offensive and Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 24 and Oct. 8, respectively.

SACK LUNCH: After compiling just 13 sacks through 11 games last season, Western Illinois head coach Charlie Fisher hired Tony Grantham to be the Leathernecks' defensive coordinator, and the pair established a new 3-4 scheme designed to attack the quarterback. With four more sacks at Northern Iowa, Western Illinois has now pushed their season total to 15 in just five games during the 2017 campaign. The Leathernecks' 3.0 sacks per game and third in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and 17th nationally.

TAKE IT AWAY: Western Illinois forced four more turnovers without giving the ball away at Northern Iowa, pushing their turnover margin on the season to 11, the second-best mark in the MVFC and the fourth-best in the nation. The Leathernecks' 14 takeaways is ninth-best nationally, and Western's three giveaways are the third-lowest in the FCS. Western Illinois has now forced at least one turnover in 45 of their last 52 games. They have multiple takeaways in 14 of the last 23 contests, including 18 over the past six games.

STONEWALL DEFENSE: Western Illinois yielded just 35 rushing yards to Northern Iowa, marking the second time this season the Leathernecks allowed fewer than 50 rushing yards in a game. In their 2017 opener, Western Illinois held Tennessee Tech to zero net rushing yards. Prior to this campaign, the last time the Leathernecks surrendered no more than 50 rushing yards in a game was against Indiana State in 2014.

LEATHERNECKS FIGHT ALS WITH BEARS, TEAM GLEASON: The Western Illinois and Missouri State football teams are joining forces during the week through Saturday's game to raise money in fighting ALS with Team Gleason and The Gleason Initiative Foundation. Western Illinois head coach Charlie Fisher and Missouri State head coach Dave Steckel have each pledged to donate $1,000 towards the challenge. Fans of both teams are encouraged to compete against one another to reach a goal of raising $20,000 in combating ALS through Team Gleason. Former New Orleans Saint Steve Gleason and his wife, Michel, formed Team Gleason after Steve was diagnosed with ALS in January of 2011. Steve, who played for the Saints from 2000-08, is best known in his career for blocking a punt on the night the Louisiana Superdome reopened for the first time after Hurricane Katrina. The Gleason Initiative Foundation is a charitable 501c3 non-profit with a mission to help provide individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with leading edge technology, equipment and services. In addition, the foundation aims to raise public awareness towards ALS and created a global conversation about ALS to ultimately find solutions and an end to the disease.

ALL-TIME AT HANSON FIELD: On September 23, 1950, Hanson Field was dedicated and became the home of Leatherneck Football. In the last 67 years, Western has compiled a 235-121-7 record at home. In 51 of those years Western finished at least .500 at home, including a perfect 6-0 record in 2010.

LEATHERNECK QUICK HITTERS:

• Western Illinois is 42-76-1 (.353) all-time against ranked opponents, including 28-57 (.329) in conference play.

• Thanks to a career-high 441 yards passing against South Dakota, the third-most in a single game in Western Illinois history, Sean McGuire surpassed 5,000 career passing yards. He is currently into seventh place in school history with 5,435 yards, while his 221.8 yards of total offense per game is the best in program history. On the season, McGuire ranks seventh in the nation in both passing efficiency (168.6) and yards per attempt (9.50),  10th in completion percentage (66.0), 14th in passing yards per game (272.4), 17th in passing touchdowns (12) and 18th in passing yards (1,362). Also against the Coyotes, he came within one of matching a program record with 31 completions in one game.

• Wide receiver Jaelon Acklin, McGuire's favorite weapon, entered this season with 21 career catches for 364 yards and two receiving touchdowns. However, the senior has blown up in 2017, catching 40 balls for 742 yards and seven receiving touchdowns this season. The Mountain View, Mo., native leads the entire nation in receiving yards per game (148.4) and ranks second in total  touchdowns (nine), receiving yards (742) and all-purpose yards per game (175.0), fourth in receptions per game (8.0), sixth in receiving touchdowns (seven).

• The Leathernecks have dominated opponents this year when it comes to time of possession. Western has won the time of possession battle three times this year, holding the ball for 37:20 against Tennessee Tech, 39:03 at Northern Arizona, 33:03 at Coastal Carolina and 31:38 at Northern Iowa. Last year's season-best was 36:50 at Missouri State. The Leathernecks rank second in the MVFC and seventh nationally in time of possession with their 34:07 average. This year, Western has held the ball for more than 10 minutes in a quarter three times (11:09 4Q at Tech; 11:18 2Q at NAU, 10:14 4Q at NAU). The team did that seven times all last year.

• Western Illinois registered 19 total plays of at least 20 yards in their first three games of the season. However, against South Dakota, the Leathernecks compiled 15 such plays, eight of which were recorded on a passing connection between Sean McGuire and Jaelon Acklin. At Northern Iowa, Western Illinois tallied 13 plays of 20 yards or more, meaning they have 28 over their last two games. Acklin gained at least 20 yards on five different plays against the Panthers.

• After going 3-for-3 in the red zone at Northern Iowa, Western ranks first in the MVFC and third nationally by scoring on 95.5 percent of their red zone possessions. The only miss in 22 times this year was getting inside the 20 during their final drive at Northern Arizona, which ended when Western ran out the clock to end the game. The Leathernecks also finished 7-for-7 in the red zone against Coastal Carolina.

• Western Illinois has excelled on both sides of the ball on third downs. The Leathernecks rank 23rd in the nation by converting 43.5 percent of their third downs. Meanwhile, their defense ranks fifth nationally by holding opponents to a 26.9 percent success clip on third downs this year.

• Related to their success on third down offensively, Western Illinois ranks in the top 20 in scoring offense (seventh, 40.4 points per game), total offense (15th, 463.4 yards per game) and passing offense (18th, 284.0 per game). On defense, helping their success on third down has been a dominant rush defense that ranks 15th nationally by yielding 90.2 yards per game on the ground. The Leatherneck defense leads the conference and is third nationally with 8.9 tackles for a loss per game, with their 3.00 sacks per contest placing third in the MVFC and 17th in the nation.

• Brett Taylor is one of 12 players all-time with 300 career tackles (378). He ranks sixth all-time in school history, one from tying Ken McMillan (1991-93) for fifth. His 225 solo tackles are fourth all-time in WIU history. Pat Bayers (1979-82) ranks third in program history with 261 career solo tackles.

• In 27 career games (20 career starts), Sean McGuire is tied for third place all-time for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (8). He's four away from Steve LaFalce in second place in school history.

• Quentin Moon, MVFC Defensive Player of the Week after Week 1, has five career games of 10-plus tackles, including a personal-best 14 last year at Missouri State. Four of those double-digit tackles came during the 2016 season.