Wyoming vs. Portland State Week 2: Easy Pickings

WYOMING VS. PORTLAND STATE

Location: Laramie, Wyoming (War Memorial Stadium)

Date/Time: Saturday, September 9th at 2:00 (Mountain Time)

Television: Mountain West Network

Streaming: You’ll need a cable log-in but the game will be streamed here.

Head-to-head: This will be the first time the two teams meet.

After getting the nation’s attention with a win over Texas Tech, the Cowboys return home to play a team that was just defeated 81-7 by the Oregon Ducks.

Portland State is a team we didn’t see much success with last week, as they were whooped by 74, nearly the largest margin of the first week.

How will Wyoming perform?

If it was anything like last week, probably pretty good. Against a borderline AP top-25 team in Texas Tech, Wyoming was able to shut down the offense and left elite QB Tyler Shough stumped in the final frames of their game.

I expect nothing less from the defense this weekend. Just don’t get embarrassed by this cakewalk that was placed on your schedule. I would like to see a little more out of the secondary this time around and polish some of the mistakes that were made there early in week 1’s game.

As for the offense, a strong start is all you can ask for. The main concern from last week was a terribly slow start. Trailing 17-0 is not something you want to see consistently, and slow starts were a common theme in 2022 as well.

If Peasley can connect on some deep shots that would be nice as well. It was clear this was something that was in the game plan against Tech, but simply didn’t work on them. It’s a little more likely it will work on Portland State, so Peasley seriously needs to air it out. A nice confidence boost from a 70-yard bomb is well due for the Cowboy’s pass thrower.

How does Portland State look?

Odds aren’t available for this game, but if I had to guess Portland State would not be anywhere close to favored. Now, they did lose to the No. 15 ranked team in Oregon, so you can’t diss them too much. However…81-7? Come on now.

This team will be lucky to score a point on the powerhouse defense that Wyoming has. In his second season starting, QB Dante Chachere looks underwhelming as he only passed for 35 yards last week.

Prediction

I know I’ve been a little harsh on Portland State so far, but this should be a breeze for Wyoming, especially after one of the biggest upsets in the nation being at War Memorial Stadium last week. They should not by any means take it easy, and I think this is a good cool-down game before another really tough matchup in Austin week three.

With that being said, I’ve got Wyoming 35, Portland State 3.