For the second straight week, they tore down the goalposts after a victory over Utah. This time it was a bunch of Air Force cadets who dismantled both goalposts in a matter of seconds after their team knocked off 12th-ranked Utah 40-33 Saturday afternoon.
As the Falcon Stadium goalposts went down right before their eyes, the Utes saw their dreams of a Western Athletic Conference championship go down also.While the Utes still have a chance to tie for the WAC title and earn a berth in the Holiday Bowl, now they need help. Besides beating BYU Saturday afternoon, the Utes need Fresno State to knock off Colorado State that night to put all the contenders at 6-2 and send the Utes to San Diego.
Utah lost to Air Force in a similar scenario to the week before at New Mexico. They jumped out to an early lead - this time 17-0 before Air Force even had a first down - then saw their defense slowly disintegrate and the offense go stale in the second half. As they have all season, penalties killed the Utes as they were whistled for 13 for 114 yards compared to three for 15 yards for the Falcons.
Although some calls may have been crucial to the Utes loss, Utah coach Ron McBride held his tongue for the most part afterward.
"I'm not blaming anybody," said McBride. "You can't blame the officials, you can't blame anybody. I've got no comment on the officiating."
A little later in his postgame comments, however, McBride showed his frustration with the officiating, commenting on an apparent AFA fumble near the goal line that was ruled an incompletion.
"That is the craziest thing I've ever seen," he said. "They're playing option football and they call it a forward pass. Give me a break."
He also wasn't happy with two spots of the football by the officials in the final minutes, one of which would have given the Utes a first down and the other which would have stopped the Falcons on third down.
"It came down to a battle of how you spot the ball," said McBride.
The first came with 3:03 left and the score 34-31 after the Utes had driven from their own 3-yard line following a gallant goal line stand. On 4th and 7 at the Falcon 35, Mike McCoy hit Charlie Brown over the middle and Brown dove near the 28. On the measurement, the Utes came up about a foot short and Air Force took over.
Then on 3rd and 1 and 2:34 left, the Utes tried to stop Beau Morgan at the 39. Again a measurement was called for and this time the Falcons made it by about a foot.
With 1:20 left, Jake Maloy broke free for a 41-yard touchdown run to seemingly put the game away. But on the extra point try, the Utes blocked it and Kareem Leary ran some 80 yards for two points.
Suddenly it was 40-33 and Utah had a chance to win the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion. Marcus Woods returned a short kickoff out to the 39 and on first down, McCoy hit Deron Claiborne for a 10-yard gain. But that was it for the Utes, who suffered a sack, an unsportsmanlike penalty and two incompletions before McCoy's desperation last pass was intercepted.
McCoy had perhaps his poorest outing of the year, completing 25 of 45 passes for 238 yards with three interceptions and four sacks. For much of the day he was scrambling around looking for receivers. Afterward he did his usual beeline for the exit and simply said as he walked away, "We let a lot slip away, that's all I'm going to say."
In fact many of the Utes, who were so talkative during the eight-game winning streak, refused to speak afterward.
One who did was Claiborne, who said, "We shouldn't have let them back in the game."
Of the officiating he said, "It seems like it's been ragged against us since the Colorado State game. They're not for us, that's for sure."
Early on, it looked like the Utes would win in a breeze over the Falcons, who were using Morgan, the sophomore quarterback in place of Preston McConnell, who was hurt a week earlier.
The first two Falcon possessions went nowhere and Morgan fumbled on the next two possessions with the Utes capitalizing both times.
The Utes were up 7-0 after a 6-yard McCoy-to-Curtis Marsh pass when Dan Pulsipher kicked a 24-yard field goal. Then after the second fumble, McCoy hit Rick Tucker with an 11-yard TD pass to up the lead to 17-0.
At that point with 13:53 left in the first quarter, Utah had 179 total yards and 10 first downs compared to minus 12 yards and zero first downs for Air Force. If it was ping pong they would have ended the game right there and called it a skunk.
But like they have all year, even in several of the big wins, the Utes let their opponent back in the game.
A fake up the middle allowed halfback Jake Campbell to get behind the defense and Morgan found him for a 67-yard touchdown pass. Two Utes had chances, but missed tackles.
The Utes got some bad luck on their next possession when Marsh got behind the defense on a long pass from McCoy, but had the ball bounce off his helmet when the sun got in his eyes.
Then on third down, a pass intended for Kevin Dyson bounced high off his hands and into the waiting arms of Falcon defender Kevin Williams. From the Ute 44, the Falcons drove for a touchdown in 10 plays with Morgan again hitting Campbell with a 10-yard pass.
Utah made it 24-14 when Robert Hamilton scored from three yards out. But just before the half, the Falcons moved into field goal range and scored on Randy Roberts 45-yard field goal.
The third quarter was all Air Force as the Falcons marched 71 and 85 yards for scores with Campbell getting his third of the day and Morgan scoring from a yard out.
Late in the third, the Utes caught a break when Nate Kia recovered a fumble after a hit by Mark Rexford at the AFA 10. On third down, McCoy hit Brown with a 5-yard TD pass to tie the game at 31-31.
Aided by a 15-yard late hit call, the Falcons moved into field goal range and took the lead on a 42-yarder by Randy Roberts that barely cleared the crossbar.
Utah went for it all on its first play, but McCoy's pass was intercepted by Brian Watkins. The Falcons drove to the Ute 1, where the Utah defense suddenly came alive and stopped them on three straight plays, the latter when Rexford, Kia, Ernest Boyd and Harold Lusk combined to throw Jeremy Johnson for a two-yard loss.
The Utes used up five minutes in moving the ball into Falcon territory before coming up a foot short on the pass to Brown.
"When you get a team down, you've got to put them away," said McBride. "We let them back in the game."
Not only did the fans think the win was a big deal by tearing down the goalposts, but so did AFA coach Fisher DeBerry.
"I have been here 15 years and I think this is as fine a game win as we have ever had," said DeBerry. "Our team just beat the No. 12-ranked football team in America. Maybe that will open some eyes now to the reality of this football team."
The Utes have one more regular-season game left against BYU Saturday. They still seem to have possibilities of going to the Copper or Aloha Bowls win or lose this week.