Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 | 10:17 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
Midway through the second quarter Saturday night, a fan jumped out of the stands, lumbered about 70 yards (making him the Rebels' leading ground gainer) and flopped onto his back as Air Force continued to march down the field against the helpless UNLV defense. It took the "crack" Sam Boyd Stadium security force a couple of minutes to escort the man off the field as his pants slipped down his hips to well beyond TV repairman height.
Give the pantless guy credit. It was the only time the Falcons were delayed all evening.
In retrospect, it was the Rebels who should have been booked on an indecent exposure charge following an obscene 27-10 loss to what was supposed to be a weak Air Force team.
This wasn't Tennessee. This wasn't Wisconsin. This was itty-bitty teensie-weensie Air Force, which had given up 56 points to California and even struggled for a spell to beat Division I-AA Eastern Washington.
The once-vaunted Falcons option attack, once the domain of sleight-of-hand wizards such as Dee Dowis, Beau and Blaine Morgan and Chance Harridge, is now in the hands of a freshman quarterback, which is kind of like putting a driver's ed student behind the wheel at Daytona.
But no wonder why Shaun Carney was shooting his mouth off in practice last week, saying how the Falcons felt they could score every time they touched the ball against the Rebels. It was almost that easy.
All Carney had to do it was hand the ball off to one of his myriad fullbacks and let them run. The Rebels made Dan Shaffer and Adam Cole look like Roosevelt Leaks. They couldn't stop a simple dive play.
When 5-foot-9 Carney became bored with watching his fullbacks tenderize the middle of the UNLV defense with 6-, 7- and 8-yard runs on first down he decided, what the heck, let's put the "Air" back in Air Force. The Rebels made him look like Doug Flutie. Carney completed 12 of 14 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, which is a career for most Air Force quarterbacks.
As bad as UNLV was on defense, it was even worse on offense. If Rebels fans learned anything from Saturday's nightmare, it's to be careful what you ask for. Backup quarterback Shane Steichen was no better than oft-injured Kurt Nantkes and nobody in the supporting cast seems capable of bailing out the inconsistent quarterbacks. That includes normally sure-handed receiver Earvin Johnson, who had a severe case of the dropsies.
The Rebels were so God-awful terrible that I can honestly say there wasn't a single thing for fans to hang their helmets on. Unless, of course, you were one of those who decided to sit in the end zone for $13 instead of in front of your TV on pay-per-view fight night for $54.95. Then at least you saved $41.95.
But even though avuncular Fisher DeBerry deserves the highest marks for having his Falcons ready to rumble, this defeat was a vicious hook to the midsection to a UNLV faithful that is sure to be growing more skeptical by the moment.
What's so alarming is that this supposedly was a "must" game, or at least as close as you can get to one just three games into the season. Even back on media day, UNLV coach John Robinson knew the Air Force game would be large and said so. The game's magnitude was a recurring theme during the practice week.
Linebacker Adam Seward, who set the Mountain West Conference record for career tackles Saturday night (although most of this latest batch were made in his own defensive backfield), said if the Rebels didn't beat Air Force a lot of his teammates would start "breaking down" and "questioning a lot of things."
Which would put those guys in the same boat as Rebels fans.
So just three games into the season, it would appear this team has problems. Major problems. Problems that can't be fixed by a victory against lowly Utah State this week, or lowly Nevada-Reno the week after that.
Problems that start with the head coach.
That's not me talking (although I have to admit the thought did cross my mind on several occasions Saturday). That's him talking.
"In terms of responsibility for where we are, it goes directly on my shoulders," Robinson said during the postgame wake and news conference. "Obviously, it was a disappointing evening. I told our team that as disappointed as we are, I was not disappointed in them and what they have brought to this effort. We are just not getting any of the results we should be getting for our effort. That's my fault.
"In the situation we're in, the arrow has to point right at me."
The self-flagellation went on a few more minutes before Robinson, normally a stand-up guy, excused himself without taking questions from the media. Not that it really mattered.
Judging by the preceding three hours, it was obvious that he didn't have any of the answers, anyway.
archive
