AIR FORCE ACADEMY — On a cold, snowy Saturday evening, the Air Force Falcons had everything cooking on their own hot stove.
Coach Troy Calhoun put all the ingredients into a 45-17 win over visiting UNLV at Falcon Stadium.
All of Air Force’s weapons were there. Quarterback Tim Jefferson, fullback Jason Tew, tailback Asher Clark and receiver Kevin Fogler all showed up to make it a tough night for the Rebels.
Maybe it was a show for the bowl-game committees that will take a serious view of the Falcons (7-4, 5-2 Mountain West) in the next few weeks. The 45 points were the Falcons’ most all season against a BCS opponent.
“I think this was our best complete game overall as a unit,” Jefferson said. “The offense was clicking and the defense made the stops whenever they needed to. It was a great effort all around. It felt like everything we called worked.”
Clark keyed the onslaught with 160 yards rushing and two touchdowns. His second touchdown, a 40-yard run, put the Falcons up by 28 points with 9:17 left in the game.
After UNLV punter Kyle Watson failed to handle the snap and gave up the ball at the Rebels 18-yard line, Air Force starters watched the final seven minutes from the sidelines.
A light snow pelted the stadium before the start and began to fall again during the game midway through the third quarter. At game time, the wind chill factor was 20 degrees in 20 mph winds.
The Rebels picked up the pace in the third quarter and made the Air Force end of the field four-down territory in hopes of mustering any kind of rally.
Omar Clayton burned Air Force’s defense on a fourth-and-6 pass that covered 34 yards to receiver Phillip Payne for a touchdown that cut Air Force’s lead to 24-10.
But the Falcons came back with a pure-run, 72-yard scoring march, completed by fullback Nathan Walker’s 2-yard run to lead 31-10 with four minutes left in the third.
Calhoun has said all along that his Falcons are a running team and they proved his point in the first half. With touchdown drives of 95 yards and two of 80 yards, they almost ran the Rebels right out of the park.
By halftime, Clark already had his first 100-yard game of the season. He also had a touchdown along with Tew and fellow tailback Savier Stephens.
As if not wanting the UNLV secondary to fall asleep, Jefferson mixed in seven passes for 117 yards, three to Fogler for 73 yards.
The Falcons were their worst enemy or they might have scored on all five of their first-half possessions. They missed on a fourth-down gamble at the UNLV 46-yard line and then scored on four straight possessions, including Erick Soderberg’s 34-yard field goal that put Air Force up 17-3 with 7:18 left in the first half.
The Rebels could counter with just 117 yards of total offense and Kyle Watson’s 37-yard field goal for the only points was setup by a muffed punt by the Falcons at their 20-yard line. Watson’s field goal came from the 20-yard line.
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
