Air Force Academy – Texans have a habit of coming to Colorado for recreation and ruffling feathers by taking over an area.
A group from Fort Worth by the name of Texas Christian came in Saturday and took over Falcon Stadium. Not only did the Horned Frogs ruffle feathers, they plucked the Air Force Falcons clean during a 48-10 rout, more than proving TCU is the class of the Mountain West Conference.
TCU junior quarterback Jeff Ballard had a good time directing the 21st- ranked Horned Frogs to their seventh victory in eight games and fifth in a row in conference play.
Ballard’s uniform was barely tarnished after a brilliant performance that saw him go 20-of-28 passing for 302 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown.
There was little doubt the Horned Frogs knew exactly what to do with the wheels that fell off Air Force (3-5, 2-4 MWC). TCU threw the mistakes and bumbling by the Falcons into a scrap heap and scored the game’s last 34 points, including Ballard’s touchdown passes of 15 and 31 yards.
“The line gave me time to throw the ball,” Ballard said. “In our scheme, we have a lot of short, quick passes. We did notice that Air Force used a single safety to cover our receivers.”
Air Force’s only bright spot was quarterback Shaun Carney’s fourth-and-20 pass to wide receiver Jason Brown for a gain of 22 yards that picked up a first down and led to Carney’s 3-yard TD run, pulling the Falcons within 14-10 with 7:28 left in the first half.
But otherwise, the Falcons couldn’t even settle for field goals, as kicker Scott Eberle missed from 39 and 32 yards. TCU handed the Falcons their second-worst loss in conference play dating to 1980 in the Western Athletic Conference. BYU beat the Falcons 54-7 in a WAC game in 1990.
“I don’t know if it was that easy. We feel lucky to be 7-1 at this point in time, and I think we’re getting better,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “Everybody wants to say we’ve gotten lucky. Sometimes I think we create our own luck. It’s hard to go on the road and win games in the Mountain West Conference. But we’ve gone to BYU, Wyoming and Air Force and won.
“We may not be very good, but we’re winning. All we want to do is win the conference championship. There’s a lot of work left to do.”
The Falcons surprisingly were favored by a point. But they got off to a bad start when Carney was intercepted in the end zone by TCU cornerback Drew Coleman on a third-and-goal play from the 18.
“We played well defensively in the red zone,” Patterson said. “I thought Jeff Ballard managed the game very well. That’s what we want our quarterbacks to do.”
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry had no way to explain the debacle. The Falcons seemed to be on their way to a midseason turnaround after beating Nevada-Las Vegas 42-7 at home last weekend.
“I’m sorry we weren’t more of a competitive team today,” DeBerry said. “We had breakdowns in all three areas of the game. We had a punt blocked, and I thought that was a huge momentum instance for them.
“I thought our players were ready to play. They knew the importance of the game. The thing that disappointed me as much as anything was TCU’s ability to convert third downs. They were 10-for-15, and you’re not going to win many games if you can’t stop teams better than that on third down.”
But as much as the Falcons’ defense struggled, so did their offense. Carney was 11-of-18 for 148 yards, but didn’t throw a touchdown pass and had two interceptions.
“I’m very disappointed we couldn’t score in the second half,” DeBerry said. “We put the players out there who we think will make the plays, but (now) we’ll give some other players an opportunity to play.”
AFA sidelines
KEY STATISTIC
8
Eight penalties for 90 yards wasn’t the kind of game Air Force needed to stay with the high-scoring Horned Frogs.
Staff writer Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
