Tech's Friday night match-up against Marshall revolves around the concept of streaks.

The first streak is an obvious one: Tech has won eight straight games, tied for the longest since the Bulldogs made the jump to Division I-A in 1989. But Tech's opponent this week has an ongoing four game winning streak of their own. And while Tech also has a streak of four straight games with 40+ points scored, the Herd have a five game streak of allowing fewer than 32.

Altogether, this is expected to be a close game. If neither side has pulled ahead late, just a handful of plays can determine which team wins and which one loses. And more often than not, at least one of those meaningful plays is a fourth down. And fourth down defense is where Marshall truly excels.

In a game highlighted by streaks, Marshall adds one more to the pile. The Thundering Herd are currently on a five game fourth down stop streak. Or in other words, Marshall hasn't allowed a successful fourth down conversion since September 28th.

Granted, the Herd have faced the 18th fewest fourth down attempts in FBS football, but on the season, the Herd have only allowed three conversions. And two of those conversions were on a 4th and 1.

The Marshall defense was able to keep #19 Boise State from converting a 4th and 2. Up by only two scores against Old Dominion, they were able to effectively end the game by stuffing a 4th and 2 attempt. They were able to stop FAU on fourth down twice in Marshall territory, the difference in a five point victory. And in their most recent game, the Herd was able to keep Rice from converting a fourth down on the their last three drives in the Owl's desperate attempt to get a positive number in the win column.

Luckily for the Bulldogs, Tech is an above-average fourth down team. Skip Holtz has elected to go for it on fourth down eleven times and converted six of them, good for 59th best in the nation. That makes Tech one of the better fourth down teams that Marshall has faced.

But if the game is on the line late in the fourth quarter and Holtz decides to keep Bailey Hale on the sideline, don't expect an easy conversion.

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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.