Playing Air Force takes discipline

COLORADO SPRINGS — If you're a defensive player going up against Air Force's option, it's like nothing you prepare for before or after.

It's a precision run attack in its purest form — timing, deception, angles, cut-backs and refined execution by hard-working, smart cadets.

It will be on full-feature display today when the 9-1, No. 16-ranked Cougars and 8-2 Falcons meet in a showdown of two teams in search of a piece of the MWC title.

Nobody's defended it better over the years than BYU and Notre Dame, who both have 22-6 records against the Falcons. That begs the question, why BYU and Notre Dame? What similarities do they bring in preparing for the Falcons?

Other than the religious angle, which shouldn't figure at all, the Irish and Cougars generally have enough smart, disciplined guys to play assignment defense, which is exactly what it takes to ground the Falcons.

Why?

The Falcons' offense sets up great defensive athletes to fail unless they tackle with their brains instead of talent alone.

Defending AFA is tiresome work, and a ton of preparation is needed. It's like getting a popcorn hull stuck between the gum and tooth. It involves agitation, like having someone else hold the TV remote. It's awkward, like smiling with a cold sore, walking a tight wire wearing flip flops, or running hurdles in roller skates.

And when you don't stop the Falcons, they hog the ball on long drives that eat up the clock, so offenses get antsy and try to get points fast, and that's where they start blitzing with the 3-3-5 and get to quarterbacks and force turnovers.

Frustrating as a pig nosing a trough through a picket fence.

"They do such a great job of hogging the football," said BYU offensive coordinator Robert Anae. "Then teams get desperate and try to throw it and they then turn all kinds of creative things loose at quarterbacks."

Anae said if you pull up the AFA blitz on BYU last year, the Falcons probably did it for three-quarters of the game. "They attack it and they sustain it," he said. "That's the plan. I don't think they deviate it very much."

The Falcons will bring their sack leader, 6-foot-4, 255-pound left end Jake Paulson, hunting for Max Hall like TCU's Jerry Hughes did in Fort Worth. Then they'll mix up linebackers on blitzes, trying to confuse and overload Cougar blocking.