Air Force Academy – Three games. Three winning field goals with no time on the clock.
In-kicking-credible.
Buffaloes 31, Rams 28 in overtime.
Broncos 15, Bills 14 at 00:00.
And, y’all ready for this?
Falcons 20, Horned Frogs 17 in overtime.
Match that streak. Four of the teams from Colorado, final play, last call. Be still my computer.
I should rent myself to teams and stadiums wanting fantastic finishes, or I should quit going to football games in 2007 right now. It’s “Twilight Zone” kind of stuff. This doesn’t happen in movies, real life or the parallel universe. I’ve seen two college games and one NFL regular-season game, and all went down to a winning kick at the very, very end, and I’m always saying: “Whew!”
Baseball has walkoff home runs. These games had kickoff field goals.
I’ve been very lucky.
So have the winning teams.
I thought I had seen it all the first two weeks. Think again.
Air Force, which had scored three points in the first 3 1/2 quarters Thursday night, scored two touchdowns in the last 8:21 of the fourth quarter, intercepted a pass in the end zone, played on and stared on as TCU endured a ricocheting field goal off the left upright in overtime, then kicked a field goal of their own in overtime.
The Falcons also blocked a point-blank field goal during regulation, intercepted another pass, recovered a fumble, gave up 409 yards of offense and won.
Hello, stealth bombers.
The Troy Calhoun Era at Air Force has started 3-0. Has a college football team ever gone unbeaten for the coach’s entire life?
Where does the only undefeated major-college team in Colorado go from here?
Where do I go from here? If the Broncos win in overtime with a field goal against the Raiders on Sunday, I’m going to look for pocketbooks and wallets in the parking lot afterward. Forget football tickets. I should be buying Powerball tickets.
There was perfect football weather, imperfect football play, at Falcon Stadium for much of Thursday evening. It had the earmarks of an eyesore.
TCU led 10-3 at halftime and 17-3 in the fourth quarter. Zoom doom.
Air Force’s Ryan Harrison kicked the longest field goal of his career, 57 yards, in the second quarter, then he kicked the most important field goal of his career, 33 yards, in overtime. Ryan’s Hope was fulfilled.
Way back yonder, in the wild Blue yonder of Air Force football, the Falcons routinely would score six, seven, even eight touchdowns a game.
At Falcon Stadium, after every score, the cadet corps would run onto the field and do a pushup to signify each point. Many times in the past, the hundreds of uniformed students would end up doing more than 150 pushups per game.
In 2002, the Zoomsters scored 49 points twice, 52 twice. In 1998 Air Force started the season with 42 points against Wake Forest and followed with 52, 30, 34, 56, 49, 42, 31 and 35 – and put 45 on Washington in the O’Ahu Bowl.
Games with BYU and Utah always used to be 44-35, 42-38, 52-21, 54-7, 40-33, 45-21.
Why, Air Force scored 73 once at New Mexico.
They did all that relying on a triple option – flexbone, coach Fisher DeBerry called it – that gave the undersized, overachieving Falcons a chance.
Calhoun took over as the Falcons coach this year and promptly said he would scrap that offense and install more of, well, an air force. Kind of a Broncos-Texans attack, given that he had served as an assistant under Mike Shanahan, then Gary Kubiak.
I was very sad to see the ‘Bone collectors go.
I came out Thursday night to look at the new-fangled offense.
Good news and bad news. The Falcons still line up in the triple option and run the ball a majority of the time.
Against TCU, the Falcons had only a field goal to show for their exertion with 8:30 left in the fourth quarter.
Three lousy points, three lousy pushups.
Then, bam-bam, the Falcons reached the red zone for the first time in the game – on a pass – and scored on the next play – on another pass.
It has come to pass at Air Force.
What did you expect when a whole bunch of quarterbacks are in control?
There are as many former Air Force quarterbacks on the coaching staff as there are on the current Air Force roster. Four of each.
Calhoun was a quarterback for the Falcons in the 1980s, as was his assistant head coach/linebackers coach, Brian Knorr. Quarterbacks coach Blane Morgan was the QB here in the late 1990s, and Mike Thiessen, wide receivers assistant, was one of Morgan’s successors.
Shaun Carney – who started his 34th game Thursday night – is trying to help Calhoun restore Air Force to its glory days.
This is a start for Air Force. And another real kick this season for me.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
