Cowboys turn their attention to Spartans

Hey, everybody. It’s been a while since we’ve last talked, and that’s something that I sincerely apologize for. Life gets in the way, but that’s not an excuse that I’m okay with saying.

Anyway! Since the last time we talked, your Wyoming Cowboys have gone 6-3 (5-2), losing to Oregon, Boise State, and Fresno State.

Wyoming now sees themselves looking at another bowl game, the first time they’ve gone to back-to-back bowls since 1987-88.

The script has entirely flipped since last season, with the defense/special teams leading the team and carrying the slack from the dead weight that has been the offense. The Cowboys are currently second in the nation in turnovers gained (!), just barely ahead of Miami and their Turnover Chain. They’re also 25th in the country in yards allowed, 14th in points allowed per game, and first in kickoff return yards.

Meanwhile, they’ve barely held their heads above water on offense. Wyoming is 107th in points per game and 127th in yards per game.

Josh Allen hasn’t been the player he was last year at all this year. He’s currently sitting at 1,658 passing yards, nowhere near his total of 3,203 from last year, and his adjusted QBR has plummeted from 73.8 to 49.7. That’s like going from Jake Browning to Tyler Keane, who’s at the helm of the 2-9 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

Granted, it’s hard to go from having four NFL caliber players around you to zero, and it’s hard to replicate the kind of season that Allen had last year.

However, he hasn’t shown a lot of the kind of improvement that scouts and fans were most likely looking for in the offseason. His completion percentage hasn’t changed much (56% to 56.2%), and his yards per attempt has tanked. He simply hasn’t looked like the same quarterback we got used to seeing.

Like I said earlier, the Cowboys defense has kept them in games when Allen and Co. couldn’t.

An overtime interception by Cassh Maluia won the Hawaii game. A fumble and a safety all but sealed the deal against Utah State. They held Boise State to their lowest poin total all season. They forced seven (SEVEN!) turnovers against New Mexico. The Border War was the most pure, distilled version of November Wyoming Football I’ve seen in years and the Wyoming defense allowed the Cowboys to snatch the game from right under the nose of Nick Stevens. They kept Wyoming alive in a game that they, by all rights, should’ve been blown out in against Fresno State.

Point being, Wyoming has lost the games that most people wouldn’t have expected them to win (for the most part) and has defied the odds in a few of their wins.

This week, Wyoming plays San Jose State, certainly one of the teams in the Mountain West. San Jose has experienced the same offensive woes Wyoming has, but hasn’t seen the same level of defensive play. The Spartans rank dead last in both points per game and yards allowed.

San Jose State will likely stick with freshman Montel Aaron as the starting quarterback in this matchup. Aaron has had a very similar season to Allen, at least on paper.

Running back Tyler Nevins leads all rushers with 632 yards on 147 carries, good enough for 4.3 YPC. Wide receivers Tre Hartley and JaQuan Blackwell are Aaron’s favorite targets with 418 and 412 receiving yards, respectively.

All in all, this is going to be a titanic matchup between a very resistable force and a highly movable object.

Cowboys by 20 (idk probably lord knows with this team).