Air Force piled up 619 yards of offense and 45 points on Saturday night.

And it lost.

Utah State came into Falcon Stadium and won a shootout 49-45, erasing multiple 10-point deficits with a flurry of offense and a few timely stops.

“Credit to them. I thought, gollee man, they are highly, highly skilled,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “You just look at how dynamic they are in the open field.

“We need to tackle better, that’s a part of it. But absolutely huge credit to Utah State.”

Early in the game Air Force went for a fourth and 2, converted, and completed the drive with a touchdown. Later, it was stopped on fourth and 2 and Utah State capitalized with a quick touchdown.

Faced with a third fourth and 2 with 6 minutes remaining and clinging to a three-point lead against a Utah State team that was scoring at will, Air Force opted to punt.

Utah State took the ball, picked up a fourth down, and capped a six-play, 85-yard scoring drive with the winning touchdown.

Utah State 49, Air Force 45 | Tidbits from a gut-wrenching loss for the Falcons

Asked why he opted to punt, Calhoun did not go into detail but only cited the score and said Utah State’s offensive performance in the second half was taken into consideration.

Rather than recap the scoring in a game that saw five touchdowns that covered 50 or more yards and another three of at least 24 yards, an examination of the plays that didn’t directly result in points seems the more effective way to tell the story of what happened.

Air Force had a chance to go up by two touchdowns in the first quarter but an errant pitch inside the 10-yard line stalled the drive (it was initially ruled a fumble before a review changed it to an incomplete forward pass).

The Falcons were again inside the red zone later in the first quarter but quarterback Haaziq Daniels threw an interception.

The Falcons scored on their next four possessions before Utah State came up with a stop on fourth down. Air Force then scored again. The teams then exchanged rare punts in an otherwise explosive stretch in the second half, then Air Force punted when it opted against going on the fourth and 2 in the fourth quarter and the final drive ended on a Daniels fumble at the Utah State 25.

“I was fighting for extra yards,” Daniels said. “Fight for extra yards. Ball got stripped out.”

Air Force led 10-0, 31-20 and went up 45-34 in the fourth quarter on a Daniels touchdown run, but the defense’s inability to come up with consistent stops made each of those leads temporary.

Safety Corvan Taylor intercepted a pass in the third quarter, but Utah State scored touchdowns on five of its final seven drives to overcome any mistakes.

“There’s going to be big plays when you’re playing an offense like that, but we’ve just got to try to limit them. That starts at the back end,” Taylor said.

Utah State passed for 448 yards and five touchdowns and was 14 of 21 on third-down tries. The Aggies gained 628 yards of total offense, including 188 receiving yards on nine catches for Deven Thompkins in this Mountain West opener for both teams.

Air Force saw fullbacks Emmanuel Michel (11 carries for 133 yards and two touchdowns) and Brad Roberts (113 yards on 21 carries) go over 100 yards rushing, while Micah Davis (four catches for 110 yards and a touchdown) went over the mark in receiving. Davis also ran for 32 yards and a touchdown.

Daniels went 6-for-12 passing with a touchdown, an interception and ran 13 times for 97 yards.

“I would say we’re competitors and losing sucks and you don’t like that feeling,” Michel said. “But a lot of guys are motivated to get back on Monday and get back to work for a (Florida Atlantic) team this week.”