West Point, N.Y. – It was easy to see why Air Force had a Paul Bunyan attitude as it looked ahead to Saturday’s monumental task of playing Notre Dame at Falcon Stadium.
Why not? The Falcons had just chopped down Army, cutting a 43-7 swath through the hapless Black Knights on Friday night. The 36-point win was the Falcons’ largest in the 41-game series. Air Force’s defense victimized freshman quarterback Carson Williams for four interceptions, three of them helping the Falcons pile up 36 points in the second quarter. Williams also fumbled at Air Force’s 2-yard line. It was returned 98 yards for a touchdown by strong safety Adam Zanotti, and the Falcons were off and running.
With those memories fresh, the Falcons have taken the underdog mantra of “the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
But Williams isn’t Brady Quinn, Notre Dame’s Heisman Trophy candidate who increases the challenge considerably in terms of talent and size. Two weeks ago when the Irish beat Navy 48-14, the 6-foot-4, 227-pound quarterback was bigger than all but a few on the Midshipmen’s defensive unit. It will be much of the same when Air Force faces Quinn.
“We have a bigger heart and that’s what’s important,” defensive end Gilberto Perez said of facing the Irish. “Heart will win the game for us, not size. We have history with Notre Dame. But we don’t go off statistics. We have special players on this team, and that’s going to give a chance to win.”
Coach Fisher DeBerry said the Irish have a lot of players who are bigger and stronger than anybody else.
“We can’t sit still on defense,” DeBerry said. “We have to move around, and we pride ourselves in finding different pressure points and keeping leverage with our defense. We’ve played some big quarterbacks already this year. That’s no big deal. But the thing that Brady Quinn can do is pull the ball down and run with it when his receivers are covered.”
DeBerry acknowledges nobody expects the Falcons to win.
“The other times we have been fortunate to beat them, nobody gave us a chance,” DeBerry said. “It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. Our guys will fight their guts out. They thrive on challenges.”
Air Force has had better success against the Irish than Army or Navy. The Falcons beat the Irish four straight years from 1982-85 and again in 1996, 20-17 in overtime. Navy’s last victory over the Irish was in 1963, and Army hasn’t won in the series since 1958.
“If he’s bigger than us, good for him,” AFA linebacker Drew Fowler said of Quinn. “People don’t give us much a chance, anyway, but we don’t listen.”
Strong safety Julian Madrid was clear on the assignment.
“We’re going to relish this victory tonight, but tomorrow it’s Notre Dame,” Madrid said Friday. “We need to carry this momentum into Saturday. We’re going to be after the quarterback all day. He’s a drop-back passer and doesn’t like to run that much.”
The Falcons left Michie Stadium with a sense of accomplishment. Their seniors were winners in their final game matching service academies.
“I don’t know how much of a message we sent to Notre Dame, but we sent a message to ourselves,” quarterback Shaun Carney said. “We know we’re a good football team that can play like we did tonight.”
THE GRADES
Offense
B: The Falcons elected to take the ball after winning the coin toss. They were penalized for a false start on first down. They went out on three downs and a 20-yard punt by Zach Sasser gave the Black Knights their first possession at the Air Force 46-yard line.
Defense
A: After being absent the past two weeks in losses to San Diego State and BYU, Air Force’s defense came back with a strong performance. Besides the six turnovers forced, Air Force’s defense limited Army to 25:02 of possession time and three conversions on eight third- down attempts.
Special teams
B: A safety during Army’s collapse in the second quarter helped improve the grade. It would have been worse with a missed extra point by Sasser, and his 20-yard punt early in the first quarter when the Falcons needed better field position
Overall
A: Because it was against a service academy opponent and on Army’s field, the average adds up to the top grade despite a couple of blunders by the offense and special teams.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
