Air Force Academy – Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry was feeling his oats Saturday and for good reason.
The burden of a four-game losing streak was over, his Falcons had played a complete game for the first time this season in whipping Nevada-Las Vegas 42-7 and TCU, the Mountain West Conference leader, comes to Falcon Stadium on Saturday.
“I guarantee, (TCU) better play good because we’re going to play good,” DeBerry said. “They’re a national team. Two years ago they were within a couple of points of being a BCS team. Everybody in the conference knew the quality of football they would bring when they joined the Mountain West Conference.”
Saturday’s victory at Falcon Stadium helped put some muscle into an Air Force season that was slipping away. The Falcons aren’t out of the woods, but at least getting out of the conference cellar was a step in the right direction.
“I think we showed today that this is our house,” DeBerry said. “I’ve told our team that you make your breaks, and I think we made some breaks with the turnovers we were able to get today.”
Fourth-and-nowhere
One of the big plays of the game came late in the third quarter when UNLV gambled on a fourth-and-4 at the Air Force 35. Falcons defender John Rabold stopped quarterback Jarrod Jackson a yard short of a first down. It was only the second time in six chances in conference play Air Force has stopped an opponent on fourth down.
“Fourth-down plays are big,” cornerback Chris Sutton said. “We were the team today that made the plays. I’ve been saying the last month that the other team made the plays. Today was a day that we made the plays we needed to make.”
Footnotes
Quarterback Shaun Carney became the 33rd Air Force player to surpass 1,000 yards rushing in a career. With 83 yards against the Rebels, Carney brought his career totals to 1,035 yards. For the season, Carney has 419 rushing yards and 851 yards passing. … In his first game with the punting duties, junior Christopher Carp was called on one time, booting a 38-yarder. … Junior Zach Sasser took over the kickoff duties. The Rebels got one kickoff return, Ronnie Smith getting 16 yards. … On the injury front, center Jon Wilson and fullback Ryan Williams had ankle bruises and halfback Chad Smith had a bruised shoulder.
