Concerned About the Cowboys Offensive Production? They Aren’t

LARAMIE -- Kaden Anderson was quick to fall on the sword Saturday night, just minutes after the Cowboys fell to No. 20 Utah inside War Memorial Stadium.

He didn't blame his offensive line, which allowed five pressures, including two game-changing sacks.

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He didn't throw his pass catchers under the bus despite a couple of drops and only one contested grab.

He didn't bring up the injury he sustained a week prior, forcing him to make a trip to the local hospital for further testing, either.

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Wyoming's sophomore quarterback pointed the finger directly at himself after his offense picked up just 229 total yards, nearly 90 of those coming on the final two possessions of the night. Anderson's final stat line: 12-of-23, 108 yards, interception, fumble.

"I put this loss on myself," Anderson said postgame from behind the podium. "Man, I gotta do better. I gotta do better. I missed a lot of throws.

"I gotta do better, man."

His head coach agrees wholeheartedly with the latter statement, but not the one where his signal caller shoulders all the criticism.

"A concern over Kaden Anderson in particular, no," Jay Sawvel said Monday during his weekly press conference. "Was it his best Saturday night? No. I think he would tell you that, too. He can play better. He needs to play better.

"... First of all, a lot of credit to Utah."

John Henry Daley tallied those two quarterback takedowns. The initial sack forced the Cowboys right out of field-goal range midway through the first quarter. The Utes' sophomore edge rusher again got the best of left tackle Nate Geiger in the second, stripping the ball from Anderson's right hand near midfield.

Running backs Samuel "Tote" Harris and Terron Kellman combined for 113 of the team's 121 rushing yards. Nearly 80 of those came on the next to last drive of the night, one that culminated with Kellman racing into the end zone from 15 yards out to avoid the Cowboys' first home shutout since 2021.

Chris Durr Jr. hauled in five passes for 40 yards. Harris caught three more out of the backfield, including a 32-yarder down the east sideline. No other receiver caught more than one pass.

Wyoming, who entered the red zone just one time on Saturday, was 3-of-12 on third-down attempts. Needing an average of almost seven yards on those tries didn't help matters.

"They challenge you at all three levels throughout the game," Sawvel said of the now 16th-ranked Utes. "They don't just have a good front and they play soft zones or something, and they aren't good. They're good, across the board."

The numbers bear that out.

* 224 yards per game (11th in FBS)

* 8-of-36 on third-down defense (9th)

* 134 passing yards allowed per game (20th)

* 90 rush yards allowed per game (26th)

* 9 team sacks (16th)

* Total team defense (11th)

On this night, it was quarterback Devon Dampier and the offense also aiding that defensive unit by playing keep away to the tune of 35:30 in time of possession. The Utes rank 12th in the nation, holding onto the ball for an average of 34 minutes a night through three games.

Dampier and Co., despite being hit with seven of the visitor's 10 penalties on the night, converted 9-of-15 third downs and its lone fourth-down attempt. Only Arkansas has been better in that category so far.

"It wasn't just like this one position group just crapped the bed and didn't get anything done," Sawvel said, adding there were missed routes, throws and running lanes. "It was shared."

Jovon Bouknight said Wyoming's offense simply didn't take advantage of its opportunities. He said the game plan was there, it just wasn't executed. The windows, though small, the wide receivers coach added, were not capitalized on.

Is he worried about this slow start on offense?

"No, there's not a lot of concern," Bouknight said on Monday. "There definitely better be a sense of urgency. We have to come out and we have to start faster. We have to put some drives together. We can't go three-and-out and stuff like that.

"There has to be a sense of urgency."

According to ESPN, Wyoming returned 80% of its offensive production from a year ago. That ranked No. 4 in the nation out of 136 FBS programs. Where does that unit stand after three weeks?

* 344.7 yards per game (95th in FBS)

* 186 passing yards per game (98th)

* 158.7 rushing yards per game (74th)

* Six sacks allowed (79th)

* Passing efficiency: 51-of-85, 558 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT (101st)

* 16-of-42 on third down (86th)

"Give Utah credit," Sawvel reiterated. "They made it difficult for us to string things together. That was the biggest thing to it."

What about only scoring 10 points against an Akron team that has given up 99 over its last two outings? Or scoring on just five of 15 possessions versus Northern Iowa, an FCS program?

Sawvel said despite the returning numbers, there is a newness for a number of those names, including Jack Walsh, who moved from guard to center, and Caden Barnett, who switched from tackle to guard. Evan Svoboda, the Cowboys' starting quarterback in 2024, is still learning the tight end position. Wideouts Bricen Brantley and Jaylan Bean, along with tackles Rex Johnsen and Geiger, for example, saw limited action on offense last fall, too.

Same can be said for a whole host of transfers like Jackson Holman, Max White and Kellman, among others.

"We have to be better," Sawvel said bluntly. "We are not where we need to be offensively yet, and we need to get that fixed ASAP. So that's something that, and there's a variety of different things to it, but that's what we gotta go from."

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Anderson made just his sixth-career start Saturday night. Bucking the team-imposed 24-hour rule, the Southlake, Texas product said he would dive into the film immediately. That continued throughout the weekend.

He said he was hurt after the loss. Not the physical kind, either. Anderson called that game winnable. He felt like it was the one that got away.

Now, it's back to the drawing board.

"Like I said, that was a really good football team and that's the best defense we're going to see all year," he said. "We did some good things, like very little, but we did do some decent things out there. We just got to learn and grow from that. We have a really good team next week to play and, you know, we're going to be better. I'll do better."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players