Air Force crash-landed on the big stage Saturday.
And with that, the Falcons said goodbye to an undefeated season and winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy outright, while their hopes of playing in a New Year’s Six bowl were dealt a serious blow.
Army dominated the Falcons, 23-3, by owning the first half and capitalizing on an array of uncharacteristic Air Force mistakes. The Falcons entered the game 8-0 and ranked No. 17 in the AP poll, the team’s highest ranking when playing Army since 1985, but turned the ball over six times in the first contest between the service academies held at Empower Field at Mile High.
“We’ve had a pretty good go of it for a while this season, and yet (today) makes you realize how hard it is to win,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “Credit to Army — they played really hard, they played really well.
“I don’t think it was (the emotions of a rivalry game in an NFL stadium) that got to us. It was more of the quality of execution, or lack thereof.”
In a nightmare first quarter, Air Force got gashed for a 62-yard TD run by QB Bryson Daily on Army’s opening drive, lost two fumbles, was stuffed on fourth-and-1 in Falcons territory, and wideout Jared Roznos dropped a deep pass that would’ve set them up in the red zone. That amounted to a 17-0 deficit.
“It looked like a gap popped (on Daily’s TD run),” Air Force linebacker Bo Richter said. “We were loading the box, and when a gap pops, sometimes it can be easy for them to get to the second level.”
Off one of the Falcons’ first-quarter fumbles, Army tacked on another field goal early in the second quarter to go up 20-0. The Falcons were down three prior times this season — 20-10 at San Jose State, 14-0 against Wyoming and 13-7 at Colorado State last week — and managed a comeback victory each time.
But there would be no such rebound Saturday, when Army, buoyed by the return of Daily after he missed the previous couple of games due to injury, didn’t look anything like the two-win team the Black Knights were coming in. Army had previously lost five straight games and was a 17-point underdog, but never relinquished the momentum.
“We were overlooked, for sure,” Army linebacker Leo Lowin said. “We haven’t had a great season, and we saw this as a huge opportunity to turn it around in our favor.”
Air Force running back John Lee Eldridge III described the Falcons’ postgame locker room as “disappointed.”
“We had high expectations to come out here and win this game, and we didn’t,” Eldridge said. “We came out a little discombobulated, and we just didn’t execute the small things.”
After mustering a field goal, the Falcons got the ball back with less than a minute left in the first half and tried to force it downfield. But Air Force, which boasted the nation’s top rushing attack at 300.4 yards per game entering Saturday, very much looked like a team unaccustomed to passing. Its routes and pass-blocking were consistently out of rhythm, and Air Force finished with just 155 rushing yards, about half its season average.
That trend continued in the waning seconds of the second quarter, when Falcons QB Zac Larrier airmailed his target downfield and it was intercepted by cornerback Bo Nicolas-Paul, setting up another Army field goal on the final play of the half to push the score to 23-3.
“(Passing) doesn’t really align with their game plan,” said Nicolas-Paul, who added another pick in the second half. “Air Force wants to keep it on the ground, so we knew if we had a big enough of a lead, they would have to resort to throwing the ball. Once it got to that point, it was a wrap. That’s where we wanted them to be.”
The second half wasn’t any kinder to Air Force in front of 52,401 fans, the largest crowd for an Air Force “home” game since the Falcons drew 56,409 in 2002 against Notre Dame at Falcon Stadium.
The Falcons punted on the opening drive of the third quarter, then Matthew Dapore missed a 32-yard field goal attempt wide right on Air Force’s next drive, squandering a promising possession that was aided by multiple Army personal fouls.
“That was a series that really made it more difficult, not being able to punch it in (the end zone),” Calhoun said. “The incline was already plenty steep.”
Another fumble by Larrier in the fourth quarter sealed the blowout, and sent blue-clad fans headed for the exits. Larrier also threw his second interception in garbage time, Air Force’s fifth turnover. The Falcons fumbled again on their final drive, making for three turnovers on all three fourth-quarter possessions.
Army, meanwhile, was content to run the clock the entire second half. Daily finished with 36 carries for 170 yards and two scores.
“You can hit (Daily) with a sledgehammer 36 times and he’ll get back up and go again,” Army coach Jeff Monken said. “Just take another swing. That’s just who he is.”
The victory marked Army’s first win over a ranked opponent in exactly 51 years, snapping a 52-game losing streak since the Black Knights beat No. 19 Air Force on Nov. 4, 1972. And it was the first time in exactly six years that Air Force wasn’t able to score a touchdown, dating back to a 21-0 loss to Army on Nov. 4, 2017, at Falcon Stadium.
“We had the confidence to run the ball and control the clock, because we knew with how the defense was playing it was going to be a win if we did that,” Daily said.
With Army’s victory, it can clinch the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy with a win over Navy (which Air Force beat 17-6 on Oct. 21) on Dec. 9 at Gillette Stadium. If Navy wins that day, putting all three teams at 1-1 in this year’s series, the Falcons, who won it outright last year, would retain the trophy. But it wouldn’t count as a series win for Air Force, which holds the all-time record with 21 Commander-in-Chief titles.
Despite Saturday’s letdown loss, a third straight 10-win season (or fourth straight, discounting the condensed 2020 COVID season) and conference championship are still attainable for the 8-1 Falcons. They play at Hawaii next week, host UNLV on Nov. 28 and then close their Mountain West schedule on the road at Boise State on Nov. 24.
