Dallas Thompson knew as soon as the ball left his foot that it was good. So did the Notre Dame players.
Thompson kicked a 27-yard field goal in overtime Saturday as Air Force upset No. 8 Notre Dame 20-17. As the kick sailed through the uprights, Thompson turned away, sank to one knee and put his head in his hands. His teammates swarmed the field, jumping on him and hugging each other."All I remember was trying to keep my foot up so they wouldn't step on it," the barefoot kicker said. "So I had to hop around the field for about five minutes."
The Notre Dame players, meanwhile, walked off the field with heads bowed after losing to the Falcons for the first time since 1985. They left the stadium quickly, as the Falcons and their fans stayed to savor the victory.
"We need to handle this with class," Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said. "Is it easy to take? No. We have no excuses. We have to come out and play."
Despite the score, Air Force was in control all afternoon. Beau Morgan rushed for a season-high 183 yards and a touchdown, and completed 5-of-11 passes for 51 yards.
The Falcons defense took care of the rest, limiting the Irish to just 67 yards on the ground, the lowest since gaining 56 in a loss to Purdue in 1985.
They sacked Ron Powlus three times, and forced him to fumble four times.
"They controlled the line of scrimmage," Holtz said. "We tried to isolate them, we tried to zone them, we tried to T-block them. We tried everything."
Powlus' last fumble was the most significant. Notre Dame got the ball first in overtime, but Powlus, back to throw, was hit by Joe Suhajda and had the ball stripped away. Alex Pupich recovered.
Notre Dame was called for a face-mask penalty on the second play, moving the Falcons to the Irish 10. After Todd Eilers rushed for 2 yards, Thompson came in for what would have been a 22-yard field goal attempt. As the kick sailed through, officials waved it off and penalized Air Force for delay of game.
The 5-yard penalty didn't matter as Thompson's second kick was also perfect.
"He showed tremendous guts and courage," Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry said. "He has missed some long ones, but no short ones."
The Falcons forced overtime when Morgan handed off to Tobin Ruff, who scampered 26 yards to tie the game at 17 with 7:15 left in the game. The score came five minutes after Marc Edwards had rushed a yard to break a 10-10 tie that had stood since halftime.
Notre Dame looked as if it would come right back, as Robert Farmer returned the kickoff 24 yards to his 38. The Irish got to the Falcons 30, but Pupich hit Powlus as he went back to throw and the ball tumbled out of his hand. Lee Guthrie recovered with six minutes left.
Neither team could make anything happen before time ran out.