Air Force Academy
TCU
Air Force Falls At TCU In Season Finale
12/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 2, 2006
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - TCU didn't overlook its regular season finale, even with a bowl berth already in hand and another Mountain West Conference title out of reach.
Jeff Ballard completed all 12 of his passes and ran for a touchdown in the first quarter and the Horned Frogs dominated throughout for their seventh straight victory, 38-14 over Air Force on Saturday to reach 10 victories for the fifth time in seven seasons.
Air Force (4-8, 3-5 Mountain West) finished its third straight losing season. The Falcons had 128 total yards, 220 below their season average.
The Falcons didn't score until Hunter Altman returned a blocked punt 15 yards for a touchdown with 12:28 left.
Poinsettia Bowl-bound TCU (10-2, 6-2) has trailed only 17 minutes - just more than a quarter combined - since consecutive conference losses to MWC champion BYU and Utah. Those setbacks came after TCU's 13-game winning streak that was then the longest in NCAA Division I-A.
TCU earlier this week accepted an invitation to play Northern Illinois on Dec. 19 in San Diego. That will be the first of 32 bowl games played this season.
Ballard, one of 22 TCU seniors playing his last home game, was 20-of-25 for 220 yards and a touchdown while playing only three quarters. He is 18-2 as TCU's starter and has thrown 124 passes without an interception, the third-longest active streak in the nation.
Aaron Brown ran 11 times for 49 yards and caught six passes for 72 yards.
TCU scored on all four of its first-half possessions to build a 24-0 lead, and was at the Air Force 1 to start the second half when Lonta Hobbs fumbled trying to score. Chris Thomas reached from behind to poke the ball loose, then reached into a pile to recover the fumble - a play that was upheld after being reviewed.
The Horned Frogs still scored two plays later, when Torrey Stewart returned an interception 20 yards for a touchdown. The Falcons fumbled on a double reverse on their next drive, setting up Brown's 1-yard TD run that made it 38-0.
Air Force had turnovers on its first three drives after halftime, a fumble at the TCU 29 in the third quarter ending the Falcons' deepest penetration.
On the game's opening drive, Ballard completed seven passes for 58 yards before Hobbs scored on a 12-yard run, going virtually untouched into the end zone on a run up the middle.
Ballard hit five more passes on the next drive, ending that with a 1-yard keeper that made it 14-0 after the first quarter.
During its winning streak, TCU has outscored its opponents 70-10 in the first quarter and 176-13 before halftime.
Quentily Harmon made an acrobatic play to put TCU up 21-0, when he caught a pass and was knocked off his feet. He came down on a bent leg at the 3, but his knee never touched the ground and wound up in a scrum of players, pushing forward into the end zone to cap a 19-play, 97-yard drive.
