Just a short two weeks ago, the Cowboys opened their road tilt against the league-leading San Diego State Aztecs with a touchdown scoring drive. A stout Aztec defense didn’t afford the Cowboy offense a single point after that.
After having the bye week to prepare for another road trip to California, a rested Cowboy team hoped to find a much better result against Fresno State in the San Joaquin Valley.
However, despite again scoring on their opening drive of the game – this time off the boot of Erik Sandvik – the Cowboys did not tally a single point after their first drive of the contest in a disappointing 24-3 loss to the Bulldogs.
“We didn’t give ourselves a real good chance tonight, we made too many mistakes in certain situations,” head coach Jay Sawvel said postgame. “Offensively, we couldn’t string together enough plays in a row without bogging ourselves down.”
Stringing together plays and consistency has been a major culprit of the Cowboys’ near bowl ineligibility, as the loss drops the Cowboys to a 4-6 overall record and 2-4 league record.
The Cowboys’ offensive inefficiencies have been glaring in their recent two game skid, in which they’ve only been able to muster a combined 10 points and 369 yards in their two most recent losses – a far cry from their last win, where their offense compiled an impressive 372 yards and 28 points in a shutout of Border War rival Colorado State.
It was a total of five turnovers that haunted the offense against the Aztecs. Against the Bulldogs, it was penalty yards and time of possession. The Bulldogs had the football for about a whopping 34 minutes of the contest, with the Cowboys only retaining possession for about 26 minutes. Penalties – many of which came on the offensive side of the ball – compounded into 93 total yards by the end of the game, which was more than the 64 yards the Cowboys finished with through the air.
“What happens is that we’re not doing a good enough job of getting out of our own way at times,” Sawvel said.
The only sign of life offensively came from the tough running of freshman Tote Harris, who averaged eight yards per carry with 96 total yards on 12 carries.
Is there anything the Cowboys can change in just two weeks to salvage their bowl eligibility?
Simply put, execution on the offensive side of the ball just has to be better.
“We’ve all got to stick together we’ve got to get some things sorted out and figured out to put ourselves in a better position to be successful,” Sawvel said.
The Cowboys will have their last chance at home to sort out their grievances, with last-place Nevada making the trip to Laramie. The Wolfpack recently found their first win in league play against San Jose State in dominating fashion, winning 55-10.
What once seemed like a sure-fire win just a few short weeks ago against a lifeless Wolfpack squad just became a whole lot more interesting – and not in a good way.
