Air Force Academy – A small step in the Mountain West Conference race, but the Air Force Falcons took a giant step of rehabilitation of their wobbling image Saturday at Falcon Stadium.
The steps led to a convincing 42-7 thumping of bumbling Nevada-Las Vegas, but the question is whether it’s a turnaround for the last four games or just a stop on a path that has had a lot of bumps in the road.
The Falcons (3-4, 2-3) stepped out of the conference cellar and snapped a four-game losing streak, but next face conference leader TCU (6-1, 4-0) in a Saturday showdown at Falcon Stadium. UNLV (2-5, 1-3) fell into the MWC cellar.
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry sent a wake-up call to his team with several blasts of a whistle after the team’s early-morning breakfast.
It seemed to work, and he finally saw his team put together a consistent effort on offense, defense and special teams to provide a treat for Air Force partisans among the 30,573 fans who braved the 10 a.m. start.
“After our team finished breakfast, I jumped up and blew my whistle and I blew it loud and I blew it a bunch of times,” DeBerry said. “I said ‘Wake up, wake up, by gosh it’s time to go to work.”‘
Quarterback Shaun Carney seemed to benefit the most as he shrugged off an early-game fumble to blister UNLV’s tiring defense for four rushing touchdowns, 6-of-7 passing for 74 yards and 83 yards on 12 carries. His first two touchdowns were 47 seconds apart in the second quarter for a 14-0 lead. Carney led the unit that churned out 316 yards rushing, a 31-14 advantage in first downs, a 76-51 lead in total plays and a 17:08 edge in possession time.
A bristling Air Force defense that had been burned in consecutive losses to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado State and Navy, turned UNLV’s running game into a walk. The Rebels finished with just 2 net yards on the ground, largely because of huge negative yardage by quarterback Jarrod Jackson (minus-31 yards) and halfback Tremayne Kirkland (minus-19).
Jackson was sacked five times, once when the snap sailed over his head while in the shotgun, for minus-24 yards, and Kirkland also had a center snap sail over his head while lined up in the shotgun on a potential trick play.
“We just made a ton of mistakes,” said UNLV coach Mike Sanford, whose team was called for a season-high 13 penalties. “What’s amazing to me is that we ended up with 2 yards rushing. We had so many sacks and negative yardage plays.
“There’s no excuse for that.”
Jackson gave the Falcons some uneasy moments, completing 18-for-25 passes for 157 yards. It was Kirkland’s trick play, a halfback pass that covered 58 yards on a touchdown play to receiver Casey Flair, that pulled UNLV within 14-7 with 12:38 left in the second quarter.
“We came out here today fighting as hard as we could,” AFA cornerback Chris Sutton said. “We’re going to play the same way against TCU. Everybody has been talking about pulling together, but it wasn’t happening. We made it happen.”
Air Force’s defense had a field day, with strong safeties Denny Poland and John Taibi leading the way with seven tackles each.
Besides the sacks, Air Force had eight tackles for losses and cornerback Sutton and strong safety Andy Gray had interceptions. The Falcons’ special teams also had a big day with Mark Carlson recovering a fumbled punt, Adam Zanotti blocking a punt and Charles Wells recovering a sky kick on a kickoff that wasn’t covered by UNLV, which led to the Falcons’ final TD.
“We’ve talked about playing for individual pride,” DeBerry said. “What pleases me is that our team didn’t show, when the players came on the field today, that they had any doubt.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303 820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
