Cowboys end touchdown drought but still come up short

October 31, 2021 — On Saturday, the Wyoming Cowboys won at least one battle. The Wyoming offense scored their first touchdown in 11 quarters and added two more in the game. While that part was encouraging, Wyoming would still come up short in losing 27-21 to San Jose State Saturday at CEFU Stadium in San Jose. California. The Cowboy’s fourth straight loss dropped the season mark to 4-4 and 0-4 in the Mountain West. Wyoming and UNLV (0-4, 0-8 overall) are the only two Mountain West teams without a conference win. San Jose upped their conference mark to 3-2 and 5-4 overall.

After the game, Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl stated, “There’s certainly some things that we did better in the game, but we weren’t big enough to meet the moment.”

Wyoming trailed the entire game, but after cutting the Spartans lead to 27-21 on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Levi Williams to Isaiah Neyor with 2:41 to play, there was a glimmer of hope for a Poke win. The Cowboy defense did its job in stopping San Jose State on three downs forcing a punt. Wyoming would start a potential game-winning drive on their own 25 with 1:50 to play. But the Spartans defense recorded a pair of sacks to stop any hope of a Cowboy comeback.

Wyoming ended its 11 quarter touchdown scoring drought in the second quarter when Williams hit Neyor on a 54-yard touchdown pass cutting the San Jose State lead to 10-7. That touchdown pass was the longest of Williams’s career. Wyoming would trail 17-7 at the half.

“The effort and the resolve is there,” Bohl said. “I’ve got to coach them up better. I’ve to encourage them more and put ourselves in a better position. By in large, I thought our guys played hard, they’re a good team (San Jose State), and I knew they were going to be difficult to beat.”  

“Their quarterback made some spectacular running plays,” Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl said. “We knew he was going to be a weapon.” The Spartan’s quarterback Nick Nash ended the game with 11 rushing attempts for 112 yards and one rushing touchdown while passing for 150 yards and one touchdown pass.

One of the positive notes from the game was Wyoming’s Xazavian Valladay rushing for 172 yards on 22 carries. He is now less than 100 yards from being the second Cowboy to rush for 3,000 career yards. In total, the Cowboys rushed the ball for 271 yards on 50 carries. Isaiah caught three passes for 72 yards, and two touchdown passes to lead the Wyoming receivers.

Wyoming starting quarterback Levi Williams was 12 of 22 passing for 129 yards and two touchdown passes but was also intercepted twice, including one late in the fourth quarter on a potential scoring drive. Wyoming did not lose any fumbles in the game.

Linebacker Chad Muma led the Pokes defense with ten tackles, as he went over 200 in his career. Defensive tackle Cole Godbout tied a career-high with eight tackles in the game. The defense registered no takeaways.

Wyoming returns home to host Colorado State (2-2 in the MW/3-5 overall) on Saturday. The “Border War” game is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WyoRadio’s 99.7 JACK-FM and 99KSIT.com beginning at 12 p.m.