Bosco Finally Gets On-Target as BYU Downs Air Force, 28-21

Jim McMahon has his punk hairdo and an unbeaten team at his command. Steve Young has his battered old blue sedan and his zillion-dollar contract. Marc Wilson has, well, the respect of Al Davis, if not the entire population of Raider fans.

Robbie Bosco, the latest in this imposing line of quarterbacks, has yet to forge a national identity. About the closest he came was in last year’s Holiday Bowl, when he survived knee and ankle injuries to help BYU defeat Michigan and win the national championship. Another attempt in Bosco’s search for an identity unfolded here Saturday, when BYU defeated Air Force, 28-21, in what was referred to locally as the biggest game in the history of the Western Athletic Conference. Air Force was undefeated and ranked No. 4, while BYU, with two losses, was ranked No. 15. Bowl scouts aplenty were here in gaudy pastel blazers.

BYU, which is known for its passing prowess and its clean-living athletes, was reasonably certain its defense would be able to overpower Air Force, stop the wishbone and abort the Falcons’ 13-game winning streak, longest in the nation.

That assumption proved to be correct, and it took all of BYU’s brawn to reverse an untimely beginning that left Bosco embarrassed, if not flustered.

Bosco came up with the idea of forsaking his regular jersey No. 6 in favor of the No. 7 normally worn by his friend and leading receiver Glen Koslowski, who suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago.

For the first three minutes of the game, it appeared to be the dumbest decision of Bosco’s life. Of his first nine passes, seven were incomplete. Far worse, one was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, while another was intercepted and returned to set up a score that put Air Force ahead, 14-0.

Along with Wilson, Bosco had worn No. 6 with distinction, as Young had worn No. 8 and McMahon No. 9.

Notice there was no No. 7 in there until Saturday.

If Bosco hadn’t kept his composure, and if that overpowering BYU defense hadn’t treated Air Force quarterback Bart Weiss like an enlisted man instead of a future pilot, No. 7 might have lost its connotation as a lucky number here at the foot of the snowy Wasatch Mountains.

“I told Kos that if we lost, it would have been his fault,” Bosco said after the game as he stripped down to a set of black thermal underwear, unnumbered.

“I was just teasing him, of course. I wanted to do this because he’s meant so much to our team, and it hurt us not having him today.”

Bosco resurrected his image by throwing three touchdown passes, two of them to Mark Bellini, plus a 69-yard game-winner to Vai Sikahema with 5:41 to play.

Although four of his passes were picked off and two returned for touchdowns, Bosco wound up with respectable statistics (29 of 49, 343 yards) and added a couple of NCAA records to his name.

He surpassed McMahon’s record for most completions over two years with 574. He also broke two records that were held by Todd Dillon of Cal State Long Beach for most attempts over two seasons with 895, and most plays total offense over two years with 1,037.

Sikahema, who was content to wear his customary jersey No. 23, set a record himself: most career combined kick returns, 192. That’s a statistic that could stump all but the most astute trivia freaks.

More important to Saturday’s outcome was Sikahema’s 72-yard punt return early in the third quarter that enabled BYU to move within a touchdown of Air Force after trailing, 21-7.

“I don’t remember a lot about the play,” Sikahema said. “I know I didn’t catch it. It bounced up into my hands, then I just took it up the field. The only guy who had a shot at me was the punter.”

Sikahema’s recall of his game-winning reception was a little sharper.

“Air Force is a good coverage team, as good as anybody we’ve played, including UCLA,” he said. “On the long touchdown play, we were trying to get a linebacker isolated on me, and that’s what happened.

“Robbie made a pump fake, then let it go, and I was all alone.”

Air Force, gritty to the end, drove to the BYU seven on its final series. Weiss’s desperation pass into the end zone was intercepted by BYU’s Rob Ledenko as time expired.

The ensuing celebration seemed every bit as jubilant as the one that followed the team’s win over Michigan in the Holiday Bowl a year ago.

Ledenko was swarmed under by teammates and fans and had a difficult time catching his breath.

As it turned out, that was all Bosco needed at the beginning of this 36-degree afternoon--a chance to get his breath.

Air Force didn’t permit it, snatching two of his passes and posting a 14-0 lead before the game was three minutes old.

“We were antsy at the start,” Bosco said. “What we needed was to relax and keep our poise. We were missing everything, blocks, patterns and passes.

“But we were never worried. We knew our defense would do the job. And I give them full credit for winning this game for us.”

Credit accepted.

“We dominated ‘em,” said defensive tackle Jason Buck, a 274-pound specimen the likes of whom Air Force can’t recruit because of the confines of fighter planes.

“I think we started to intimidate them after we stopped them twice in the first quarter.”

Buck and Shawn Knight, a 279-pound defensive end, snuffed a pair of Air Force penetrations at the BYU 18 and 22. The failure to score and break the game open gave Bosco the opening he needed.

BYU Coach LaVell Edwards couldn’t have been happier with the final three quarters of this game.

“This was a classic game,” he said. “I have never been more proud of a comeback than today’s. We were tight, but we were never intimidated, and we settled down eventually.”

Air Force, which hadn’t allowed more than 19 points to any opponent during its winning streak, was done in by Sikahema’s punt return, according to Coach Fisher DeBerry.

“That was the play that gave them momentum,” he said. “A good football team shouldn’t allow that to happen.

“I also thought BYU’s size made a difference. We are not anywhere in that mold. BYU is probably the best defense we’ve played this year.”

And Bosco is probably the best No. 7 Air Force has seen since last year, when, as No. 6, he led BYU to a 30-25 win. That was the last time Air Force had lost.