Interesting you should mention Oklahoma.
I didn’t remember this, but apparently AF went into Norman last year and moved the ball up and down the field on Oklahoma similar to the ND game. The game was really close because the Sooners didn’t score on offense like ND did.

Good point Trey about trading 3 for 0.

One other thing to note is the # of 4th downs they converted (5 for 5? Something ridiculous). Coaches are inherently conservative and going for it that often is a sign of desperation, of knowing your D can’t stop the other guys O so you have to keep your O out there despite the risks. Granted, the Air Force offense is hard to stop for less than 3 yards so it makes short yardage 4th downs an easy call for Calhoun, but even with that it’s pretty unusual for a team to go for it that many times. Against any other offense save Navy, they don’t get 5 for 5 on 4th downs. Navy might be more likely to get it because they run a similar offense that is hard to stop for a loss.

Point being, sure, the final stats look bad in terms of yards given up and final points, but subtracting out the garbage time 2 TD’s, Air Force had to get REALLY lucky and REALLY aggressive to even come up with the 19 points they did. Meanwhile, we put up 59 and could have had more, had we wanted. I’ll take that any day of the week.

You’re a Cowboys fan too, right? Remember the Skins game this year? There’s the most recent occurrence of that statement for me

It isn’t so much not valuing the FG, but more of a philosophy that if the defense gives one up, they still did their job. I’m perfectly fine with a “bend, don’t break” defense as that will keep you in the game.

Sure, I’d love the defense to pitch total shutouts, but that isn’t always going to happen.

As Erik mentioned, and you did as well, there is another side of the coin: offense. If the offense completely fails to score, the blame falls on them.

How many times as a football have you said “wow, our offense completely lost that for us, the defense kept us in it”. That is the thinking behind this philosophy.

Naturally you take that trade, and I said as much. I just dont think you can overlook the value of the 3 points(remember how irate we’ve been over the last few years before Ruffer because we COULDNT get those points?).
Absolutely you trade 7 for 3, but Id trade 3 for 0 any day too. That was my point about weighting them.

If you don’t win a few times on offense, it really doesn’t matter what your defense does. In that regard, I think counting field goals as a win for your D is fine, the same way counting them as a loss for your O is fine. I’ll trade 7 for 3 all day long. Also, I took the FG win contextually in terms of this game, where we were moving the ball at will all day long. When your offense is doing that, your D needs to keep the other team out of the endzone.

I thought the defense did a good job adjusting to the outside pitch man even in the 2nd quarter (before halftime). I remember thinking that it was refreshing to see some adjustments made without waiting until the half. In particular, Robert Blanton made some outstanding plays on his own in the 2nd quarter, coming off the block to tackle the pitch man, and/or turning him back inside.