If the fourth quarter comeback against San Jose State a week prior was considered a miracle, then the way the Wyoming Cowboys played out the fourth quarter against the Air Force Falcons should be considered an absolute disaster.
It was a tie 14-14 contest heading into the final frame of play, and the Cowboy defense started the quarter off by forcing a turnover on downs in their own territory. The Cowboy offense was able to flip the field and were working on a scoring drive that would assuredly give them the lead.
That was until a puzzling play call on 3rd and goal at the Falcons’ three yard line had former quarterback and current tight end Evan Svoboda under center.
Surely the 6’5”, 250 pound bruiser was just going to tuck the ball and run behind the staunch frame of tailback Sam Scott–as he has done several times this season, with some success–right?
Wrong.
Instead, Svoboda attempted to air a pass over a multitude of Falcon defenders intended for fellow tight end John Michael-Gyllenborg.
The pass never even had a chance.
.@AF_Football was READY for the throw 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Lp3vSAeUR5
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) October 18, 2025
“He made a mistake on it, right?” Sawvel said of the Svoboda interception. “They have a guy sitting over the ball, the play was open, the guy that was supposed to cover J-Mike [Gyllenborg] has eyes in the backfield, but there is a guy over the ball.
“We can’t throw it with a guy over the ball, so we have to coach him better in that situation, because we should have just tucked it and got what we could get out of it without throwing the ball in that situation. We made a mistake, so, anytime there’s a mistake it’s a coaching mistake. So that’s the way we got to look at it.”
The outreached arms of Falcons’ defensive back Roger Jones Jr. plucked the ball and the Cowboys’ hopes of a win away in one swift motion. The Falcons’ offense–led by quarterback Liam Szarka, who finished the day with 141 yards on the ground with a touchdown on 26 carries–marched their way right back down the field after that costly interception and found the end zone on an eight play, 80-yard scoring drive.
To make matters worse, starting quarterback Kaden Anderson compounded Svoboda’s costly mistake with an interception of his own on the following drive, allowing the Falcons to extend their lead to 24-14 with a field goal.
The Cowboy offense would eventually find the end zone with under two minutes remaining to make it a three point game, but the following onside kick wouldn’t bounce in their favor and the Falcons bled the rest of the clock away as the Cowboys fell to a disheartening 3-4.
“We had to be better in a couple of situations with decision making and in how we handled the ball,” Sawvel said.
If you just watched this game by itself, it would be hard to tell that the Falcons entered the game featuring likely the worst defense in the nation. The Falcons ranked dead last in total defense in the nation heading into the contest and were giving up an astounding 40 points a game.
The Cowboy offense was just barely able to string together 21 points in the dying minutes of the contest and, as has been the theme of this season, were unable to capitalize on multiple different opportunities in and around the red zone.
Air Force presents a unique challenge this weekend, as the Cowboys will head to Colorado Springs to do battle with the best offense in the Mountain West–but the worst defense in both the league and the nation.
— mason riding (@ridingmason) October 13, 2025
⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/Gb8nnfMYEj
“We did well right away, off the bat,” Sawvel said, as the Cowboys had found the end zone on their opening drive of the game. “Then, we went into a dead spell for a couple possessions in a row in the first half.”
The Cowboys entered the contest with only the 11th ranked scoring offense in the Mountain West, and that number likely won’t improve much after a lousy showing against the worst scoring defense in the league.
With the Cowboys now eclipsing the halfway point of their season, the offensive incompetence is becoming clearer–and against the Falcons, it was unequivocal.
Sure, the box score was again stuffed with 10 or more players recording a reception for the third straight game, but none of those names are putting up numbers with any consistency.
For example, Chris Durr Jr., the Cowboys’ leading receiver on the season, caught just two balls for 13 yards against the Falcons, with both catches coming in the opening three offensive plays on the Cowboys’ first drive.
He was nonexistent for the remainder of the game.
In fact, Durr Jr. has not finished for more than 25 receiving yards in league play after finishing with more than 40 receiving yards in each non-conference tilt. Sure, a small injury has contributed to his recent inefficiencies, but the point still stands.
Why is ball not finding him?
Transfers such as Michael Fitzgerald, Eric Richardson and Jackson Holman have all shown flashes of their ability and returners like Jaylan Bean, Charlie Coenen and Justin Erb have shown improvements from seasons prior, but more often than not find little impact throughout the 60 minutes of a game.
To add insult to injury, Gyllenborg–who looked to be one of Anderson’s top receiving threats this season–has been a ghost much of the season due to an injury, something he struggled with while missing much of last season as well.
The Cowboys have also not featured their trio of deadly running backs enough, either. The tandem of Samuel Harris and Terron Kellman both amassed 83 yards a piece against the Falcons with Kellman accounting for a pair of touchdowns after his game-winning touchdown scamper against San Jose State a week prior.
.@wyo_football finds the end zone first in a 23-yard dash ⏩ pic.twitter.com/le0LtvCCYc
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) October 18, 2025
Why weren’t either of them given the ball on third and short at the Falcon’s goalline?
“We had just ran it and didn’t get anything, right?” Sawvel said of the plays leading up to the Svoboda interception.
Ultimately, this road loss to the Falcons feels like a critical juncture in the Cowboys’ season, particularly in their bowl game aspirations. The Cowboys still have three conference road tilts yet to come against San Diego State, Fresno State and Hawaii–with those three teams accounting for a combined record of 16-5. What confidence should we have in them finding wins in those games if the Cowboys couldn’t find a way to win against a 1-5 Air Force team?
One thing is for sure, and that’s that a 3-4 record certainly feels a lot more daunting than a 4-3 record would have heading into the final weekend of October.
