Air Force notes: Defense good, but not good enough

Reggie Rembert wasn’t surprised that his proud defense gave up just 20 points to the nation’s No. 10 team.

“We definitely think we have a swagger on defense,” said Rembert, a junior cornerback, “and that makes us tough to beat.”

But the junior cornerback was still hurting from Saturday’s 20-17 loss to TCU and still cold from the nine-degree wind chill.

“They moved the ball and held the ball,” Rembert said. “That’s what hurt us the most.”

The Horned Frogs marched up and down the icy turf – TCU amassed 393 yards in total offense – and kept the undersized Falcon defenders on the field for 80 plays, 17 more than Air Force ran. TCU converted 8-of-16 on third down.

“We play a lot better defense when we don’t have to play a lot of snaps,” said AFA coach Troy Calhoun. “Our defense played reasonable. But we gave up a lot of yards.”

As usual, Air Force’s feisty defenders won the turnover battle – their 3-0 margin enhanced the nation’s best average of plus-2.6 entering the fray – and they twice took the ball away inside the red zone, stopping TCU’s opening drives in each half. Andre Morris Jr. intercepted at the Falcons’ 4 to stymie TCU’s first drive and Rembert did it in the second half by forcing and recovering a fumble at his own 6.

“We get everyone to the ball. We fly to the ball and gang tackle,” said Falcons senior linebacker Justin Moore. “When we knock the ball loose, somebody’s always there to get it.”

TCU became the first team to score in the third quarter against Air Force but the Falcons also got three sacks, two by senior tackle Ben Garland.

“We told Coach we’d like to play more ‘man’ and they could send more people on the blitz,” Rembert said. “We were handling them in ‘man’ and we wanted to get more pressure but mostly they did it with the front four.”

Moore, the only starting linebacker on the field for part of the second half, said, “We had a lot of new people in there but we played pretty well. Our front four played great. We just didn’t quite make enough plays.”

NOTES

Dietz starts, impresses Calhoun

Air Force sophomore quarterback Connor Dietz made his second career start Saturday in the Falcons’ 20-17 loss to TCU.

Dietz played in place of sophomore starter Tim Jefferson, who still is hampered by his injured right ankle. Jefferson, who did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday, warmed up but did not play.

“Until we really see Tim able to go without any hesitation at all, then we went with Connor,” coach Troy Calhoun said. “And I thought he really did a fine job. For a guy only in his second start, he made some plays. And probably what I love most about him was just his spirit and his leadership.”

Dietz rushed for a team-high 71 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and completed 6-of-17 passes for 42 yards.
Calhoun said Dietz’s play has at least given him an argument to keep the starting job once Jefferson is healthy.

“It’s something that when you get to that point, that I think we’ve got to look at,” Calhoun said. “He’s played well, and I think he’s only going to play better.”

Finally, a touchdown

Sophomore receiver Jonathan Warzeka’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Fogler late in the first half ended an embarrassing drought for the Air Force offense. The Falcons had not scored an offensive touchdown since the third quarter of their Sept. 19 game at New Mexico — a span of 159 minutes, 56 seconds of game time that doesn’t include the untimed overtime session at Navy.

“It was nice to get some points on the board,” Warzeka said. “The past two weeks we couldn’t do anything.”

First-time starters

Junior defensive end Wylie Wikstrom and junior tailback Savier Stephens both made their first career starts. Wikstrom started in place of senior Myles Morales, and Stephens started in place of sophomore Asher Clark.

Etc.

Senior defensive tackle Ben Garland, senior punter Brandon Geyer, senior center Mike Hampton and junior cornerback Reggie Rembert served as Air Force’s captains. ... Junior outside linebacker Andre Morris Jr. left the game in the first quarter after being leveled by TCU’s Jurell Thompson. Morris, who likely was knocked out by the hit according to Calhoun, left the field under his own power.