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."
Heaps said offensive coordinator Robert Anae told the quarterbacks at halftime that Nelson would play exclusively in the second half. He added that he respected that decision and he was not surprised by it.
"When they made that decision, it's my job to support Riley," Heaps said.
The Cougars turned the ball over two other times in the first half. With the game tied 7-7, running back J.J. DiLuigi broke off a 43-yard run before defensive back Jon Davis stripped the ball, which bounded into the end zone and was recovered by linebacker Patrick Hennessey, squelching a golden scoring opportunity for BYU.
"We just didn't make the plays. We dropped balls and turned the ball over," DiLuigi said. "Those killed us."
Later, Nelson fumbled after rushing for eight yards to pick up a first down. Two plays later, Air Force sophomore wide receiver Mikel Hunter scored on a 33-yard reverse to lift Air Force to a 21-14 advantage. The Cougars couldn't recover.
"It's a different game if we don't turn the ball over because a couple of times, we were putting drives together," Nelson said. "We've got to come back and be tougher than we were."
Nelson added that he was surprised his team couldn't score in the final 45 minutes of play.
"It was unfortunate. We didn't convert on third downs, we didn't really get into the red zone," he said. "We didn't do the things that gave the offense success in the first half. There were little things we couldn't seem to overcome."
BYU trailed only 21-14 late in the third quarter, but Jon Warzeka scored on a career-long 46-yard touchdown run to make the score 28-14. The Falcons added one more score early in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Historically, the Cougars have had a tough time with the Falcons when playing early in the season — especially on the road — and that's what happened Saturday.
"They executed better than us, they played harder than us, the played faster than us," Logan said. "It's early in the year. Their guys are fresh. We played them in November (last year) and they were banged up. As a whole, we didn't execute."
"There were so many opportunities to make plays," coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "But we didn't make any of those critical plays necessary to find our way back into the game in any phase."
As the Falcons celebrated on the field after their win, and as the Cougars trudged to the locker room, the song "Hit the Road, Jack" blared over the Falcon Stadium public address system. It was Air Force's farewell message to its long-time nemesis.
Next Saturday, BYU travels to Florida State while Air Force visits Oklahoma.
e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com