TCU Horned Frogs @ Air Force Falcons Football Preview

Every season, Air Force gets into Mountain West Conference play a little sooner that the rest of the conference to accommodate scheduling its service academy counterparts. Air Force’s success in September conference matchups is quite good, especially at home. In fact, in the last five seasons the Falcons are 8-2 overall, 4-1 at home in these September conference games. The only two losses were to teams that would finish at least ranked (BYU in 2007) or undefeated ( Utah in 2008). Air Force is quite good in these games, to say the least. It seems that for whatever reason, preparing for the Air Force option is harder to do in September for MWC opponents.

Enter TCU, who has only played Air Force once in September in those five years. That game in Colorado Springs was in 2007, which Air Force won 20-17 in overtime. All of this, despite the two being good teams, is why this matchup has been anticipated all off-season. TCU’s 50-48 shootout loss to Baylor last week does dampen the excitement a bit. TCU has hung on to its Top-25 ranking for now, however, those numerals hanging to the side of its name preserving at least some of that excitement.

Matchups between TCU and Air Force are usually defensive battles, but it seems this could be more of a high-scoring shootout, as TCU’s offense was surprisingly potent despite the loss of Andy Dalton, and its defense was uncharacteristically porous. New quarterback Casey Pachall seems ready for the spotlight, as he threw for 251 yards and four touchdowns in a comeback effort that brought the Horned Frogs oh-so-close to a win against Baylor. The Frogs’ run game was strong as expected, netting 215 yards even with Ed Wesley missing some action. Add in the revelation of Skye Dawson, a new speed threat to replace the departed Jeremy Kerley, and TCU’s offense seems reloaded for another strong season.

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Air Force is coming off a less-challenging season opener, a 37-20 win over South Dakota. The offense churned for the Falcons, especially in the run game. Seven rushers combined to run for 391 yards for Air Force, its option attack an unstoppable force for South Dakota. Senior quarterback Tim Jefferson peppered in 96 passing yards and a touchdown through the air as well. Despite the expected success against a lesser opponent, Air Force did show signs of sloppiness. While only losing one, the Falcons did fumble four times, and Jefferson was intercepted twice on only nine total passing attempts. Such sloppiness will put them in a much bigger hole against an opponent like TCU.

Paramount   in a game against Air Force is defending the run. While TCU did a decent job of this against Baylor, giving up 150 rushing yards, Baylor was also busy assaulting them through the air that night. Terrance Ganaway gained 120 yards on 24 carries, a 5-yard-per-carry average. An average like that could spell trouble against the Air Force option. All said, another great matchup can be expected this Saturday.

By: Brett Hein
DFN Sports Staff Writer