BYU football: Air Force takes down punchless Cougars

BYU vs. Air Force boxscore

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — BYU's final trip to the Air Force Academy as a member of the Mountain West Conference was one it would like to forget.

The fired-up Falcons handed the soon-to-be-independent Cougars a bitter parting gift Saturday afternoon during BYU's first stop on its MWC farewell tour — a convincing 35-14 loss before a sellout crowd of 46,692.

Actually, it was BYU (1-1, 0-1) giving gifts, in the form of three turnovers, while the Cougar defense generously gave up three long touchdown-scoring plays and 477 yards of total offense to Air Force (2-0, 1-0) in the conference-opener for both teams.

Truth is, the Falcons dominated BYU in every phase of the game.

"I think this was humbling for us," said senior safety Andrew Rich. "We got our butts kicked from the start to the end."

With the victory, the Falcons ended six years of frustration, beating BYU for the first time since 2003. And it came on a day — Sept. 11 — that saw Air Force honor the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

"We knew how hard they were going to compete," Cougar cornerback Brian Logan said of the Falcons. "It's Sept. 11. We knew it was a special day for them. This is what they're trained to do. These guys defend our country. It's either win or die. We expected them to have that attitude and that's what they did."

BYU's offense started hot, scoring on two of its first three drives to seize an early 14-7 lead. From there, though, the Cougars sputtered, as they were held scoreless over the final three quarters. BYU had 183 yards of total offense in the first quarter, then only 126 yards the rest of the way. For the game, the punchless Cougars threw for a paltry 88 yards, marking the first time they had fewer than 100 yards passing since a 3-0 loss to Utah in blizzard-like conditions in 2003.

While quarterbacks Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps alternated series in the first half, just as they did the previous week against Washington, Nelson played the entire second half.

"It was the coach's decision," said Nelson. "I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't lead my team better."

With about five minutes remaining in the first half, and on the first play of his third series, Heaps was intercepted by Air Force cornerback Reggie Rembert. That was his last appearance in the game.

"I definitely could have made that throw," Heaps said. "Nine out of ten times, I would have made that throw. It was one of those things where I just didn't."