All season long, head Wyoming Cowboy football coach Jay Sawvel harped on the fact that the Cowboys have been the victims of bad luck, whereas last season they were more often the recipient of a few fortunate and timely plays that led them to win their fair share of one score games.
“We were in very similar type games a year ago, you know, we had five one score games that we won a year ago,” Sawvel said earlier in the season. “This year, we’re in those situations and we’re making the play that you can’t make.”
Nickelback Wrook Brown coming away with a timely 29-yard pick six to bring the Cowboys within three points early in the fourth quarter is one of those plays that the Cowboys have been missing all season. After taking a four point 49-45 lead late in the fourth quarter, defensive end Tyce Westland forcing and recovering a fumble to nail in the coffin on the Cowboys’ second win of the season is also a play that comes to mind when you think of a game defining moment.
However, it wasn’t the defense that was initially keeping the Pokes in this one early. In fact, it was the exact opposite. And if you expected to see a low-scoring affair in Albuquerque, then you were very quickly proven wrong in this one.
The Cowboys, who average the second least amount of points in the Mountain West at just 18.4 points per game, have struggled offensively all season and had freshman quarterback Kaden Anderson making his first career start in the contest. That, plus an injury to the Pokes’ top wideout and return man Tyler King seemed like a recipe for disaster, at least for most teams.
The New Mexico Lobos, who average the third most points in the Mountain West and are very offensive-minded, came into the contest after only scoring six points against Colorado State in their last outing. They didn’t have much momentum offensively coming into this game.
By all means, this one had the makeup to be a low scoring affair. It turned out to be the exact opposite of that.
The Cowboys quickly eclipsed their season mean by the start of the second quarter, as the Cowboys had 21 points by the 14:55 mark of the second frame. In fact, by the time that halftime rolled around at University Stadium, the Cowboys had more points than they have had in any game all season.
Though the Cowboys were scoring at a clip no one had expected, their defense was nowhere to be found as the Lobos had the answer to every single score by the Cowboys. Both teams had a combined score of 70 points at halftime, with things being knotted up at 35 points and both teams only punting a combined three times by the break. At the rate these two were going, it seemed like it was going to come down to who had the ball last.
With how things were playing out in the first half it was surprising that it was the Cowboys’ defense that would ultimately spur a fourth quarter comeback and win the game for the Pokes late by allowing their offense to close the door and bleed the time out off the Westland fumble recovery. But before Brown’s pick six, the Cowboys were down by 10 and things were looking bleak.
Despite the win and big plays defensively down the stretch for the Cowboys, the numbers that the Cowboy defense gave up are anything but pretty. The Cowboys allowed the Lobos’ quarterback, Devon Dampier, and running back, Eli Sanders, to both eclipse the 200 yard rushing mark, the first time that had happened in the history of Lobo football. On top of giving up 412 yards on the ground, the Cowboys also allowed the Lobos 164 yards through the air for an ultimate tally of 576 yards of offense.
Luckily, for the sluggish start that the defense was having until the fourth quarter, where they only gave up a total of 31 yards, the Cowboys’ offense was having its best outing of the year.
Anderson, the aforementioned freshman quarterback who was making his first career start in the Brown and Gold, connected on multiple deep balls, as he made seven passing plays of over 15 yards in the contest. Many of those were to junior wideout Jaylen Sargent, who easily had his biggest game of his career with six catches for 186 yards and a touchdown. Those eye-popping numbers gave Sargent an impressive 31 yards per catch in the game.
Running back Harrison Waylee made his return to the field for the first time this year as well for the Pokes, as the talented senior back was warmly welcomed back to the Pokes’ backfield with 170 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries. Fellow senior back Jamari Ferrell had his best game since suiting up for the Cowboys, with 20 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown as well.
Some other notable performances include freshman wide receivers Chris Durr Jr. and Justin Stevenson, who both made multiple clutch catches for the Cowboys. Stevenson, who made the touchdown grab to give the Cowboys the lead late in the fourth quarter, finished with three catches for 45 yards and a touchdown. Durr Jr. also had three grabs, but for 28 yards and also impressed with a one-handed catch along the right sideline that ultimately set up junior tight end John Michael Gyllenborg for a touchdown. Gyllenborg finished with four catches for 38 yards and a touchdown.
“There’s a number of young players that have to take leaps,” Sawvel said before the contest.
A number of young players taking leaps against the Lobos offensively is what won the Pokes the game. Overall, the Cowboy offense put on a clinic, putting up 604 yards of total offense. Anderson finished the game throwing 20/29 for 342 yards while throwing three touchdowns and only one interception.
“Kaden was injured for a big chunk of last year, and there was a lot of unknowns about this,” Sawvel said of Anderson’s sudden emergence. “Kaden’s feel for everything became evident, particularly over the last couple weeks and today a lot of that pays off.”
The Cowboys, who enter a bye week this next upcoming week, will hope to replicate their success in Albuquerque when they take on their Border War rivals, Colorado State on November 15.
