Control of the Mountain West Conference Mountain Division is in the hands of Air Force.

The Falcons can thank New Mexico and an unlikely stumble by Boise State for being in position to potentially win its first conference title in nearly 20 years.

Having won five of six, the Falcons (7-3, 5-1 MW) travel to Boise State on Friday night needing wins over the Broncos and New Mexico in the final two weeks to wrap up a division title and spot in the Mountain West championship game Dec. 5. Air Force went into last week needing to avoid a stumble against Utah State and needing to get help from others to have the division race in its control.

Air Force did the first part, knocking off Utah State 35-28 at home. And then late Saturday night watched New Mexico pull off the unlikely upset of the Broncos in Boise to leave the Falcons as the only one-loss team in the Mountain Division.

“I’d definitely say we’ve all kind of caught our second wind here to finish out the season,” safety Weston Steelhammer told reporters. “We’re taking it one game at a time, and we’ve got a pretty big one this week.”

Boise State (7-3, 4-2) was in the position where three wins to close the season would land the Broncos in the conference title game for the second consecutive season. But the mistake-prone Broncos couldn’t overcome four turnovers and too many dropped passes against the Lobos, losing just their third conference game at home since 1998.

“Probably the best thing for us is having a short week,” Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin said. “After reviewing the game, we just hurt ourselves. It really came down to a game of inches with a few catches here or there.”