Saturday’s MIAA showdown between Missouri Western and Pittsburg State pits the team with the best passing efficiency rating in the conference against the team with the best passing efficiency defense. But Missouri Western coach Jerry Partridge isn’t so sure his focus should be on what happens when Western quarterback Drew Newhart throws the football.

Instead, he’s concerned about Northwest’s offense and quarterback Blake Bolles.

“You look at the stats, and they’re up there in everything,” Partridge said of the Bearcats (4-1, 3-0 MIAA), who will invade Spratt Stadium on Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. matchup of the only two teams still undefeated in MIAA play. “It’s like playing the 1985 Chicago Bears, except Bolles runs better than Jim McMahon.”

Partridge sees LaRon Council as an exceptional running back, running behind an athletic offensive line.

With that cast, Northwest racked up 70 points on Saturday against struggling Truman State, with the shutout victory adding even more spice to the geographic rivalry game against the Griffons, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1981.

Western’s offense scored regularly enough to outlast Pittsburg State 45-40 on Saturday in Pittsburg, Kan., but the contest became an offensive shootout in the second half.

The Griffons compiled 374 yards of total offense in that game, with 255 of them coming through the air.

“But our defense racked up about 415 yards, I think,” Partridge quipped.

Defense was a concern for the Griffons, who at one time led 31-14 but failed to stop the Gorillas most of the second half.

“We’re back to our old third-down defensive woes,” Partridge said, referring to the team’s 2008 tendency to allow too many third-down conversions. “That’s the issue, and it sometimes happened with penalties.

The holding penalties and pass interference calls didn’t really bother Partridge, whose team was flagged seven times for 51 yards. The five-yarders were another matter.

“Offsides penalties are killers,” Partridge said, referring to a first-half flag when the Griffons were clinging to a 10-0 lead. “We finally stop a screen pass, and we’re offsides. Then the go and get a 25-yard pass play, go down there and they score.”

Later in the game an offsides penalty nullified a pass interception. Given new life, the Gorillas completed another scoring drive.

“It’s difficult enough to defend people these days,” Partridge said, “but if you’re going to give them penalties to keep drives alive, that’s another thing.”

Penalties could be costly against a team like Northwest, Partridge said — especially since the Bearcats boast one of the best defenses in the MIAA.

“We have to find a way to slow them up, because to sit here and think we’re going to score 40 point on them is silly,” Partridge said.