#58 Air Force

Colorado Springs, CO

Falcon Stadium

September 10, 2022

Air Force 41 - CU Boulder 10 (ESPN Recap)

For the second week in as many college football weeks as there have been in 2022, I attended the CBS 3:30pm EST broadcast game between two random teams. I promise, this was not intentional or planned.

In this game, the only thing more amazing than the Air Force quarterback going 1 for 5 for 8 yards (QBR 18.2) and no first downs through the air or passing touchdowns in a 41-10 win, is that the Colorado QB threw the ball 21 times for a total of 51 yards and a 7.4 QBR.

Air Force did have some success running the ball…70 for 435 and 5TDs. #20 Brad Roberts was strong as as expected.

Things to note about the game:

1) The weather dipped perfectly after five straight months of 75 and sunny to 51 and windy rain for just the game. The next day the temps returned back to 75-85 and sunny for the next 10 days. Didn’t appreciate that for a Week 2 game.

2) There were 6 combined completed passes in the game. The Colorado QB clearly did not care it was freezing and raining and rifled the ball at all of his receivers as hard as he could throw it, usually a yard behind them.

3) There were 5 combined lost fumbles in this game, including one for each team inside the opponents 5-yard line. Almost as many as the hurricane game with ND @ NC State, but that game takes the cake for worst rainy weather. This was second worst rainy weather (Texas St was 3rd worst).

4) Colorado started the game with the ball and was trailing 7-0 just 33 seconds into the game. On the second play of the game, the CU QB fumbled, and Air Force recovered on the +14. Next play, 14-yard rushing TD.

5) The 50-degree rainy conditions played into the strengths of the triple option.

6) By far, the worst play of the game was in Q4 when Colorado (correctly went for it on 4th and 5 from their own 40 down 17 points. The QB had an opening to run for it with one defender about 7 yards down field who would have met him around the first down line to gain. It was an easy 1st down to get considering circumstances. But instead of taking contact, trying to avoid the defender, or diving head-first for the first down, he slid after 3 yards for the turnover on downs. It was shockingly bad/scared football.

7) No one was surprised to see Air Force run the ball 70 times…except maybe the visiting team from Boulder. The Buffs seemed like they were not expecting 93% of plays to be run plays. Rory mentioned “no one could catch those passes by the Air Force QB! No one. They were not even thrown near anyone!” We left the game convinced that had Colorado sent their corners to attack run defense on each snap, the Air Force QB could not have hit open receivers and that this was what CU should have tried a few times.

8) There was a “High Altitude Warning” displayed many times during the game. Cute.

9) The kicker for Air Force was impressive hitting 54 and 47-yard FGs in Q1.

I took a video of the 54-yarder because I thought “college kicker…54 yards…cold and wet…funny miss upcoming.” He crushed it. Only video I took because hands were too cold and had to try and keep the phone dry.

10) In Q4, they brought three pilots onto the field and said "Ladies and Gentlemen! Due to the weather conditions, we were unable to do the customary flyover before the game. However, please join me in a round of applause for the scheduled pilots for today's flyover." That one really hit me as strange.

Why Air Force Week 2? I had to be somewhere with a direct flight to Jackson early Sunday, so chose Denver and swung to the game in Colorado Springs via Lyft with my close friend Rory.

The tailgating scene at the Academy was interesting. To get onto the base you have to drive through a checkpoint which felt like crossing the border by car into Canada. I’ve never seen so much field parking space for fans and tailgating. Hundreds of acres, no charge to park, and since it was an intra-state game, there were 35k fans. There was a “cadets-only” section of tailgating going on that was loud, rowdy, and also well secured by armed cadets that wouldn’t let any non-cadets in nor any alcohol. We roamed and eventually settled in alongside a decent tailgate while drinking rocky mountain Coors Lite since it’s fresh in Colorado. We played four money games of cornhole, all of which went my way, swept all our doubles games as teammates against randoms, and did a Leidos game too which Rory bounced his way to victory. We even took a photo with an armed cadet who was patrolling the tailgates and concourses for I don’t know what.

Watched the thrilling end of Bama/Texas in some tents before rushing into the stadium and just catching kickoff. It rained on us for 3.5 quarters and the game stayed just close enough for us to be in misery as Air Force put it out of ATS reach late and our +17.5 tickets were garbage. The stadium has no wifi, zero signal, ran out of hot chocolate, and designed the locations for rest rooms and concessions horribly. They did surprisingly sell high quality craft IPAs in the stadium.

There were lots of uniformed cadets at the game and outside the stadium. Some ran onto the field to do pushups with the cheer team after scores. Some ran out of the stadium after the game, but we don’t know why.

(EDIT: Air Force won the Commander in Chief Trophy for the 2022 season)