Injuries on the defensive line ruin a 28-15 victory over the Falcons of the Air Force Academy
By Dave McMahon
1991 Scholastic Football Review
Notre Dame entered its matchup against the Cadets of the United States Air Force Academy with a decided physical advantage, as the Irish offensive line outweighed the Falcon defensive line by over 45 pounds.
Physical attributes had little bearing on the game’s outcome, however, as Notre Dame escaped with a 28-15 win and returned to South Bend with two injured defensive tackles.
“We won a football game tonight but lost a team,” said Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz.
With quarterback Rob Perez guiding Air Force’s wishbone offense through an attacking Irish pass defense, the Falcons rushed for 108 yards in the first quarter. Air Force offensive linemen accompanied the wishbone with low “chop” blocking, a feature that left the Irish pondering the future of their defensive line.
The first casualty occurred just over four minutes into the game when junior right tackle Eric Jones went down with a broken ankle and tom ligaments after a chop block by Air Force tight end David Mott. Jones, a stalwart on the Irish defensive line, would miss the rest of the season and possibly some of spring practice.
The scenario only worsened for Notre Dame’s defensive line, which was the most inexperienced Irish unit coming into the season. With Air Force driving in the fourth quarter to the Irish 34-yard line, sophomore nose tackle Bryant Young suffered the second broken ankle of the night after a block similar to the one used against Jones.
“It hurts our morale because we never want to see our buddies go down, especially in a game like this,” said senior Troy Ridgley, who replaced Young at nose tackle for the remainder of the game.
“I could see maybe in the national championship or something, but in a game like this where all kinds of things went wrong and to top it off with these two injuries is just unbelievable.”
Freshmen Germaine Holden arid John Taliaferro, both inside linebackers in high school, combined for eight tackles in relief of Jones and Young.
After a 42-yard field goal1 by Air Force’s Joe Wood on its first possession put the Falcons ahead 3-0, Notre Dame began the first of two 70-plus yard drives. Irish quarterback Rick Mirer finished the first drive, a 76-yard march, with a 7-yard touchdown pass to fullback Jerome Bettis for the first Irish score. Craig Hentrich kicked the extra point to give Notre Dame a lead it would never relinquish.
Air Force responded with 11 consecutive rushes for 73 yards before Wood connected on a 24-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-6. After Air Force recovered a punt fumbled by Irish return man Jeff Burris, Wood had a chance to give the Falcons the lead, but missed wide left on a 39-yard field goal attempt .
Then the Irish offense cranked into gear. On first-and-ten from their own 22-yard line, the Irish were penalized five yards for illegal motion. On the second try, Mirer connected with split end Tony Smith across the middle for an 83-yard touchdown pass. The pass was the longest of Mirer’s career and ranks as the fifth longest all-time for the Irish.
“They were in a three-deep coverage and Tony just ran a good route” said Mirer, who threw for 151 yards and two touchdowns on 6-of-12 passing.
“I got the ball to him where he needed it and he caught it in stride. We’ve been looking for a deep ball for a while and finally got one.”
After Ridgley forced and recovered a fumble by Perez at the Air Force 32, Bettis crashed in from three yards for the touchdown. Hentrich booted the extra point for a 21-6 with 1:13 remaining in the half.
With no time on the clock following a penalty against Notre Dame, Wood easily connected on a 58-yard field goal to cut the gap to 21-9 at halftime.
“We tightened up on defense inside the 20-yard line,” said linebacker Jim Flanigan, who had eight tackles for the Irish. “We came through when we had to by the goal line … It could’ve easily been a 21-21 ballgame at halftime.”
In the second half, Notre Dame picked up offensively where it left off. After Dean Lytle recovered an onside kick (a weapon Holtz used surprisingly often in the 1991 season) at the Air Force 45, the lrish drove 55 yards in eight plays. Bettis recorded his third touchdown of the game on a 19-yard run behind right tackle Lindsay Knapp.
Despite a decided time of possession advantage of 35:03 to 23:41 by the Falcons over the Irish, Notre Dame’s ball control offense matched Air Force’s style in the third quarter.
Air Force entered the game as the second best rushing team in the nation (344 yards per game) and lived up to its billing with 382 yards on the ground. In a balanced wishbone attack, fullback Jason Jones piled up 171 yards on 37 attempts, both career highs. Perez added 125 yards rushing on 26 carries for his fifth 110-yard rushing game of the season.
“We weren’t surprised at the fullback running because he’s the key to their entire offense,” said Notre Dame linebacker Demetrius DuBose. who led the Irish with nine unassisted tackles. “The defense overall did a good job as far as holding them down when we needed to.”
After recovering a Rodney Culver fumble in the third quarter, Air Force drove 91 yards on 21 rushing plays for its lone touchdown. The two-point conversion failed.
“They do so many things so well and are so disciplined,” said Mirer. “We’ve got to give them credit. You can see how they won six ballgames.”
Although the loss of Jones and Young would come to haunt the Irish later in the season and hinder the inexperienced Notre Dame defense, the Irish didn’t view Air Force’s chop blocking tactics as cheap shots.
“The only way you can combat that kind of blocking successfully all night is to step backwards instead of stepping forward when the ball’s snapped,” said Holden, the freshman who replaced Young. “Then you loose everything off the snap so you really can’t afford to do that. You have to go out on the edge. Unfortunately my boys got hurt tonight.”
Irish offensive guard Mirko Jurkovic saw the chop blocks as best for the wishbone.
“They’re always down at your legs and grabbing. And it works. I give them a lot of credit. They played hard.”
Flanigan also recognized the low attacks by the Air Force line.
“We had to try to stay low and keep people from coming at our feet. But they make it tough on you.”
“They did what they had to do to put themselves in a winning position,” said DuBose.
Notre Dame linebacker Pete Bereich did his part to put the Irish in a winning position and received the Toyota Leadership Award for his contributions. The award, in its seventh season, is presented weekly by Toyota to a player from each of the participating teams during ESPN’s Prime Time college football game of the week. Bercich, from Mokena, Ill., is a sophomore in the college of Business Administration with a 3.23 grade point average.
The leadership the Irish really needed, however, may have been lost when Young and Jones went down. They had been emerging as forces on the defensive line and were becoming double threats on either side of the line. How the freshmen such as Holden and Taliaferro would hold up while playing the Trojans of the University of Southern California in college football’s greatest rivalry remains to be seen.