WEST POINT, N.Y. — An Army cadet showed up for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff with a sign that read, “The Forward Pass is Communist.” Fox analyst Mark Ingram II liked it enough to give him a chest bump. By the end of Saturday night, the sign had a punch line the cadet probably could have done without: Air Force beat Army 24–21 on a forward pass.

The joke works because Army plays football as if the forward pass is still under review. The Black Knights came into the game leading the country with 342.5 rushing yards per game. Through eight games, they’d scored 31 touchdowns on the ground and just four through the air. Their offense is built around quarterback keepers, fullback dives and option pitches. If you can get six yards handing it off, why give the ball a chance to hit the ground?

For a while, Army made a pretty good case for the sign. Down 17–7 at halftime at Michie Stadium, the Black Knights scored twice in the third quarter. Cale Hellums punched it in from a yard out, then backup quarterback Bryson Luter ran 19 yards for a touchdown to put Army ahead 21–17. All three Army touchdowns came on the ground.

Air Force, which rushed for 260 yards itself, answered early in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Evan Medders found Simon Kibbee for a 24-yard touchdown, putting the Falcons ahead for good. Army had another chance after stopping Air Force at the 1-yard line, but gained just two yards on its next possession. The Falcons got the ball back and ran out the final 5:27.

The win secured the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for Air Force and moved the Falcons to 7–2. Army fell to 5–4.

So Air Force took the trophy home by throwing the ball once when it mattered most, then doing exactly what the cadet would have wanted: keeping it on the ground until everybody had to go home.