The Wyoming Cowboys aren’t necessarily unaccustomed to playing host or opening their home slate against stingy FCS opponents.
In 2021, the Cowboys escaped a Montana State team that later played in the FCS national championship game by a touchdown in the final minute of the contest. They won that one by a final score of 19-16.
The Cowboys were never able to comfortably pull ahead of Portland State in 2023, despite miraculously upsetting a tough Texas Tech team in two overtimes at War Memorial Stadium the week before. The Cowboys ended up defeating Portland State by a final score of 31-17.
Then, just a year ago in head coach Jay Sawvel’s first season at the helm, the Cowboys were bested by an injury-ridden Idaho team to start the season 0-2. Idaho effectively played keep-away from the Cowboys, winning by a score of 17-13 despite not scoring for the entirety of the second half.
It was a much different story against the Northern Iowa Panthers inside a War Memorial Stadium bursting in gold–as the Cowboys took command of the Panthers early and never looked back in a decisive 31-7 finish.
“I liked the fact that we had no real lulls as a football team,” Sawvel said postgame. “Defensively, we played well from start to finish…and I thought offensively, there were a lot of plays we were pretty efficient in a lot of situations.”
Sawvel has so far completely flipped the script on the two game start the Cowboys had a year ago. Including the Idaho loss in the second game of the season, the Cowboys had been completely overpowered by Arizona State on the road, losing 48-7. In that initial two game stretch a year ago, the Cowboys had given up a combined 65 points. This season, that number is just seven through their opening two games.
“We’re just on the same page and we’re confident. We know what we got to do, we got to have good eyes, good leverage, good effort, good physicality and we should play well,” senior linebacker Evan Eller said of the Cowboys’ defensive performance.
Eller has been a staple of the Cowboys’ defense so far and the redshirt senior finished his day against the Panthers with three tackles and an interception in the red zone. The defense as a whole finished with 23 players who recorded a tackle, and no one player made more than six tackles–a testament to the depth Sawvel pledged to gain on that side of the ball after last season.
The defense was also able to force six separate three-and-outs on a total of 12 Panther drives. The Panthers reached the red zone just twice and scored on just one of those outings, due much in part to three separate flags going against the Cowboy defense.
While a 10-0 blanking of Akron on the road left little doubt in the Cowboys’ defense, it did leave question marks over the Cowboys’ offense. Despite finishing their night with 426 yards of offense–which is more than the Cowboys amounted in their home opener earlier today–the Cowboys could only muster 10 points on the scoreboard.
However, the Cowboys left no question they could complete drives in their 31-7 drubbing of the Panthers, as they finished off all four trips they had to the red zone with points.
“Maybe there could have been more flash to it,” Sawvel noted of his offense with a grin. “Maybe we could have helped ourselves if we didn’t have a couple of other penalties or that type of thing, but the effort was really good and our execution was really good.”
The Cowboys featured a balanced attack, shredding through the Panther defense on both the ground and in the air, finishing the day with 379 total yards. They hadn’t eclipsed the 300 yard mark in either opening loss last season.
The rushing attack was far more balanced than the Cowboys’ last outing, as four different backs finished with five or more carries. Samuel ‘Tote’ Harris and Sam Scott both found the endzone and finished with 58 and 61 yards, respectively, Terron Kellman led the group with 87 yards but was unable to find the endzone. Regardless, it seems the Cowboys have been able to regain a bit of their old ground and pound identity–which has opened things up for the offense as a whole.
“Whoever is lined up in the backfield–you can ask anyone on the offense–we got full faith that they’re gonna go and do their thing and it’s a lot of fun to have that,” senior tight end John Michael Gyllenborg said.
“It’s a good feeling to have a deep running back room.”
The Cowboys also had 11 different players record a reception, with Gyllenborg leading the way, tallying 65 yards and a touchdown. Chris Durr Jr. wasn’t far behind with 54 yards and a touchdown as well, as he’s now finished two games in a row with a touchdown grab.
Quarterback Kaden Anderson finished 17/23 for 167 yards and a pair of touchdowns–but left the game in the third quarter with an injury after suffering a big hit. While Sawvel noted he wasn’t fully aware of Anderson’s status, he did mention the injury being to his upper body.
Backup quarterback Landon Sims took over the offense for the remainder of the game and was steady, finishing 3/3 for 23 yards. While Sims wasn’t able to fully showcase his ability with a majority of the plays late in the game coming on the ground, he is not without the confidence of his teammates and coaches if he is to step into a starting position next week, where a matchup against Utah looms.
“Everybody in the program has real confidence in Landon Sims,” Sawvel said.
While the Cowboys’ true tests of their non-conference slate still await them in the coming weeks, there’s no doubt a 2-0 start to the season–with a pair of convincingly dominant wins to boot–is a much better feeling than where the Cowboys were at this point just a season ago.
“We’re just taking it one week at a time,” Gyllenborg said. “We’re happy to go 1-0 this week and then we’re gonna celebrate tonight, and next week we have a big opponent coming here. That’s just our approach.”
