AIR FORCE LATEST TO RUN OVER REBELS
Ryan Harrison’s 19-yard field goal with 2:36 remaining lifted Air Force to a 29-28 victory over UNLV.
It was the third time in four games that the Rebels defense allowed a team to march the length of the field in the closing minutes to either tie or win the game.
Saturday night, the Falcons moved from their own 8-yard line all the way down inside the UNLV 5 before kicking the winning field goal.
The Rebels then took the ball into Air Force territory, but a fourth-down pass from Omar Clayton to Jerriman Robinson was knocked loose by a pair of Falcon defenders.
UNLV led by eight in the final quarter, but Air Force scored the game’s final nine points.
Clayton threw for 251 yards on 19-of-30 passing, and freshman Phillip Payne had the most consistent game of his young career with six catches for 124 yards and a score.
HURRY UP
Air Force went to a no-huddle, hurry-up offense for its go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter.
The scheme clearly got UNLV’s defense off balance. The Falcons also threw the ball several times on the possession after attempting only three passes in the first three quarters.
NO TURNOVERS
Neither team turned the ball over in Saturday night’s game.
Air Force did fumble the ball three times, but the Falcons were able to recover in each instance.
UNLV also continued its run of perfection in the red zone. The Rebels converted both of their trips inside the 20-yard line into points. They remain perfect on the season.
It was the Rebels' fourth turnover-free game of the year. They are tied with Florida for the national lead with just five turnovers on the season.
FLAIR MOVES INTO SECOND
Casey Flair had four catches and now has 184 for his UNLV career, enough to move into second place on the school's all-time receptions list.
He needs just four more catches to take over the top spot from Damon Williams (187).
Ryan Wolfe had eight catches to give him 170, good for fourth-best in school history.
EFFICIENT IN THE PASSING GAME
Air Force doesn’t throw the ball often, but when they did on Saturday night, they were successful.
Freshman quarterback Tim Jefferson completed 6 of 7 pass attempts for 162 yards and two scores.
He also ran the ball 13 times for 99 yards.
It was part of a Falcons attack that racked up 508 yards of total offense, including 346 on the ground.
HOWARD ATONES
In the third quarter, UNLV cornerback Geoffery Howard was jumped over by Air Force tight end Travis Dekker.
The maneuver allowed Dekker to pick up an additional 35 yards and will probably have Howard making all the highlight shows.
He made up for it early in the fourth quarter.
After an Air Force touchdown, Howard thwarted a 2-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game with a solid tackle of Kyle Halderman.
In the end, it didn’t really matter as the late Air Force field goal would have won the game anyway.
COX GETS TOUCHES
UNLV freshman running back C.J. Cox had 13 carries to only 11 for starter Frank Summers.
Summers still out-gained Cox 69-60 in the contest.
Both players scored a touchdown, with Summers’ coming on a 45-yard rumble down the left sideline early in the fourth quarter.
Cox’s touchdown was the first of his career.
MORE CLOCK MANAGEMENT ISSUES
After Air Force’s second-down play with three minutes remaining in the game, UNLV called a timeout.
It was probably the right decision.
The Falcons were chewing up the clock as they moved closer to the go-ahead score.
The problem was Mike Sanford waited 10 seconds to signal for the timeout.
Either call timeout right away or save it. Those are the only two options. You can’t wait that long and then decide to call it.
Even more unbelievable, he did it again after the third-down play.
Air Force was allowing the clock to run down before attempting the go-ahead field goal. Sanford allowed the play clock to run down to six seconds before calling timeout.
Why?
If you are going to call timeout, you simply have to call it. It is beyond explanation. There is absolutely no reason to use the timeouts in that manner.
Sanford tried to explain his thought process after the game.
“Only because I was not sure what they were doing,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if they were going to go for it or kick the field goal and I was getting conflicting information.“
Still, there have been countless clock management problems with this coaching staff this season. A college head coach is not supposed to be learning on the job.
