LARAMIE -- Craig Bohl said he slept like a baby after Saturday night's 24-14 loss at Air Force.

By baby, he means he woke up every 15 minutes crying.

"It was hard, you know, because you replay every play that you go through in a game, as a coach," Wyoming's eighth-year head coach said during his weekly press conference Monday in Laramie. "I think sometimes, as coaches and players, we see some things differently.

"... But my assessment of sleeping like a baby was about right. I mean, it was a hard night."

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What did Bohl see during that loss in Colorado Springs?

He saw Air Force, for the most part, do what Air Force does -- run the ball, control the clock and play solid defensive football.

That was no surprise.

The Falcons throwing the ball 10 times in the second half was.

 

UW linebacker Chad Muma said the Cowboys defense didn't spend much time preparing for that during the two weeks leading up to the game, but after forcing three straight Air Force punts to close out the first half, Bohl had a feeling Troy Calhoun could go to the air over the final 30 minutes.

"I was concerned at halftime," Bohl said. "I told our defensive staff, 'watch out, they're going to throw.' They kind of looked at me like, 'are you crazy?' they haven't been throwing it all. Well they did."

Falcons quarterback Haaziq Daniels completed 7-of-10 throws for 110 yards and a touchdown. On the first possession of the second half, Daniels went 4-of-4, including that 13-yard scoring strike to Micah Davis to take the lead.

It was one Air Force wouldn't relinquish.

Here are some other tidbits from Monday's Zoom call with the media:

 

* Don't get it twisted -- Bohl has plenty of faith in his redshirt freshman placekicker, John Hoyland. For those of you who questioned whether or not the Cowboys should've attempted a 42-yard field goal instead of go for a 4th-and-10 with 1:27 to go, Bohl said you can put that blame squarely on his shoulders. "That had nothing to do with my confidence in (Hoyland)," he said. "Actually, it was quite the opposite. I knew coming into this situation. We were going to have to throw the ball in the end zone and score touchdown. It felt like having the ball on the 25 yard line, we've got behind their defenders a couple times during that time ... We felt like we could get the ball in the end zone ... I felt much more comfortable going for a long field goal to tie the game as opposed to trying to kick a field goal and then flip the script and try to throw the ball. It was going to be difficult for us to get the ball in the end zone."

* More on that decision, which Bohl said he knew would be plenty talked about. "I knew they had the No. 1 rushing team in the country," he said. "I looked at the percentages. While typically being a defensive coach, I would have said kick the field goal, but putting this in the context of the ballgame, that was my decision. It turned out to be wrong."

* There was another field goal opportunity that wasn't attempted on the Cowboys first drive of the second half. One that could've given the visitors their first lead of the evening and a 17-0 scoring run. UW had the ball at the Falcons' 36-yard line. It would've been roughly a 53-yard attempt into a blustery wind. Bohl said he took his chances on flipping the field and riding his defense. Analytics, Bohl said, could've played out in the Cowboys favor if they kept the Falcons out of a third-or-fourth-and-short. "You can second guess me all you want, and I'm comfortable with that," Bohl said. "But please make note that I feel really good about John and have great confidence in him."

* Bohl pointed to his team's first four drives of the afternoon as getting things off on the wrong foot at the academy. Wyoming ran 12 plays for a net total of five yards. Four straight punts aided in 14 Air Force points and extended drives of 15 and 11 plays. "Unfortunately, our first four drives we went three and out," he said. "There's a lot of different reasons for that. We certainly need to improve on that. But I thought that had a big, big impact. We started out a little slow on defense, which typically happens when you try to replicate everything you can against Air Force. It's always difficult to do."

* Air Force put the ball on the ground five times Saturday night. Wyoming pounced on just one of those mistakes. Bohl said that could've really changed things.

 

* Defensive tackles Jordan Bertagnole and Cole Godbout, Bohl said, were instrumental in the Cowboys limiting the Falcons to just 211 rushing yards. Muma's 11-tackle performance didn't hurt either, he said.

* Bohl also praised the resolve of his defense after a tough first 25-plus minutes in Colorado Springs. Wyoming held the Falcons' triple-option attack to just 3.3 yards per carry. Typically, they hover around 6.5 per tote.

* Sean Chambers completed just 11-of-28 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. Chambers also fumbled the ball twice and was sacked four times. "He started out and some of his reads were not the best," Bohl said of his redshirt sophomore quarterback. "Some of his balls that he threw were a little bit inaccurate. Our receivers put their hands on the ball, but he he made it more difficult than what it should have been to be able to get into some rhythmic throws, which we are striving to do. So, we've got to shake off the cobwebs there."

* Bohl isn't worried about his quarterback, but said he wants to see some things cleaned up by Chambers and the receiving corps. "I know Sean is a self-starter," Bohl said. "He doesn't get real high and doesn't get real low. I thought he improved as the game went along and, I thought some of the things that he did with some of his plays were really outstanding and he improvised. He ran, he scrambled, he made some plays out of nothing. But the things we need to work on is making the plays out something."

* Bohl said the Cowboys were 0-3 bringing down 50-50 balls, which means the receiver and the defensive back both had a shot at it.

 

* Before the Ball State game, Bohl and his staff reached out to Penn State to gather intel. The Nittany Lions played the Cardinals a week prior. Sunday, Bohl said, the staff reached out to Oregon, who hosted Fresno State back in early September and escaped with a 31-24 victory over the Bulldogs. What did the Ducks coaches have to say? "They felt like it was not a fluke," Bohl said. "Maybe Oregon could have scored another touchdown, but they matched up really well."

* Bohl heaped plenty of praise on Fresno State quarterback Jake Heaner and running back Ronnie Rivers. That's warranted. Haener is the third-leading passer in the nation with 2,230 yards through six games. He was No. 1 before the Bulldogs' bye week. Rivers has 48 total touchdowns in his career. He's the active leader in the country in that category.

* You may have heard ... the game will kickoff at 1:30 p.m. Saturday inside War Memorial Stadium. Fox Sports held up that kick time until the last second before determining who to give the prime-time slot, too. That played out on the field last Saturday. Air Force's win over UW, coupled with Boise State's upset at No. 10 BYU, made the choice a no-brainer. Falcons and Broncos will take the night slot.

* I asked senior offensive tackle Alonzo Velazquez about a holding call on his fellow lineman, Logan Harris, that negated a 3rd-and-18 pickup early in the fourth quarter in Colorado Springs. I also asked him if he thought he earned a false start penalty in the third. "You know, as a player, we're always going to have disagreements with the refs, but I have to own up to it -- I did flinch a little bit. I didn't sit in there," he said. And the call on Harris? "As an offensive lineman, you hate t o call anything holding, so I don't know if that was holding or not," he continued. "I did see the play, but I'm just going to leave it to what it was called. I've got my own opinion on it, but ..."

 

* Stay tuned to 7220sports.com throughout the week for all your Wyoming Cowboys football coverage.

University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players

During the summer of 2021, 7220Sports.com counted down the Top 50 football players in University of Wyoming history, presented by Premier Bone & Joint Centers, Worthy of Wyoming.

The rules are simple: What was the player's impact while in Laramie? That means NFL stats, draft status or any other accolade earned outside of UW is irrelevant when it comes to this list.

This isn't a one-man job. This task called for a panel of experts. Joining 7220's Cody Tucker are Robert GagliardiJared NewlandRyan Thorburn, and Kevin McKinney.

We all compiled our own list of 50 and let computer averages do the work. Think BCS -- only we hope this catalog is fairer.

Don't agree with a selection? Feel free to sound off on our Twitter: @7220sports - #Top50UWFB

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players

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