First, the bad news for Air Force.

The defense looks lost. The team gave up 49 points for the second week in a row, losing 49-37 to Boise State at home on Saturday night. The Falcons are under .500 overall and, at 0-2 in the Mountain West, already facing long odds to contend in the league.

Could there be good news in all this?

Yes.

Air Force has a quarterback, and Liam Szarka looks like a keeper. And Boise State – fresh off a College Football Playoff appearance and on the way out of the Mountain West after this season – won’t be seen around these parts again. Maybe ever.

“It’s right there,” fullback Dylan Carson said after running for 109 yards and a touchdown – his second 100-yard rushing performance against the Broncos. “College football has a razor-thin margin of error. We’ve just got to close the gap even more and once we get there we’re going to start stacking wins because we are a talented team and we have the ability to run the table.”

Lots to unpack from this one, but the dueling headlines were certainly the struggling defense and the play of Szarka, who stole the show if not the win after entering in relief for the Falcons’ fourth possession on offense.

The sophomore from Aurora – a Grandview High School graduate – was the first Air Force quarterback to throw for 200-plus (242 with two touchdowns on 13-of-18 passing with an interception) and run for 100-plus (111 with a touchdown) since Isaiah Sanders, another in-state grab from Palmer Ridge, did it at UNLV in 2019. It was the ninth-most total yards in school history.

“I thought he played his (butt) off,” coach Troy Calhoun offered in a blunt assessment.

“He played a hell of a game,” Carson added.

The Falcons had, for the most part, rotated quarterbacks through the first two games. They did so again Saturday, though it was unclear if starter Josh Johnson initially left because of an injury.

Calhoun wouldn’t say if the team will play only one quarterback moving forward, but it was evident to the 24,046 at Falcon Stadium or those watching on CBS Sports Network that the issue was settled.

“I’m so proud of the way he played and the steps he’s been able to make here in these past three or four weeks,” said senior slot receiver Cade Harris, who caught eight passes for 177 yards and ran five times for 15 yards. “I’m excited for him to see where he keeps this thing going.”

The Falcons put up 511 yards of offense – their most in three years – and scored 37 points.

Most nights, that’s going to be enough.

It wasn’t on Saturday, just as 30 points at Utah State also wasn’t enough even for a single-digit loss.

Boise State put up 592 yards of offense, including 141 rushing yards and four touchdowns from Dylan Riley, who also caught two passes for 84 yards and a score.

The Falcons started a freshman and four sophomores in the defensive secondary.

“We need to play. We need guys to play,” Calhoun said. “Probably the two more immediate things you could do is go watch the film to learn from it and then get in there and back squat and build a little more butt and legs.

“We’ve got to find a way to get older some way. I don’t know what that is, but that’s what we’ve got to force to the surface.”

The freshman starter, strong safety Max Mustell, led Air Force with 13 tackles and intercepted a pass in the end zone in the closing seconds of the first half.

“Goodness, four months ago he was still in high school,” Calhoun said. “He was in basic training and had to wait a little bit to get into the football part of it, as is our obligations that we have here. He’ll learn and grow.”

The offense wasn’t flawless for Air Force. There was a fourth-down stop near midfield. A 19-play drive ended in a field goal instead of a touchdown when the Falcons, who had tied the score 21-21 early in the third quarter after trailing by 14, were trying to keep up with the Broncos’ relentless attack. Szarka’s interception came on a final, last-ditch attempt drive.

Still, one side is clearly outperforming the other.

Calhoun stressed to the team that any success or failure will be experienced together, perhaps preemptively quelling any divisiveness that might bubble to the surface when a team is experiencing such disparity in performance from its offense and defense.

“It’s like coach Calhoun said, we win as a team, we lose as a team,” linebacker Blake Fletcher said after making nine tackles. “Defense, obviously has to step up their game … but at the end of the day we’re going to win as a team, lose as a team. There’s not going to be that animosity between the two sides of the ball.”