Turning Point, Unsung Hero and What's Next for UW Football?

SAN JOSE, Calif., -- This game was destined to end in heartbreak, right?

The Cowboys just capped an 18-play, 75-yard drive -- one that took a pair of successful fourth-down conversions, no less -- with an 8-yard touchdown toss from Tyler Hughes to tight end Jake Wilson.

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That strike tied this game up at 13-13, but 6:25 remained on the game clock and San Jose State still had all three timeouts and the two-minute warning at its disposal.

Even though a quick three-and-out followed, the visitors immediately repaid the favor.

The dagger was on the horizon. You could just feel it.

With 3:13 to go, Luke Weaver and Co., like they had seemingly all night, began to dink and dunk the ball downfield, one wide-open out-route at a time. Jabari Bates, the Mountain West's leading rusher, also added 33 yards on the ground. As the Spartans inched ever closer to field-goal range, you could almost visualize that kick soaring through the uprights and handing this Wyoming team its eighth straight road loss.

Esaia Bogar and Ja'Quan Redfern had other ideas.

On a 3rd-and-9 at the Cowboys' 43-yard line, Weaver snagged the shotgun snap and glided back into his three-step drop. The right side of the pocket collapsed first. The left was also beginning to crater. Middle linebacker Ethan Stuhlsatz took care of the middle, blowing up two SJSU offensive linemen in the process.

The 6-foot-3 signal caller was forced to step up and into the teeth of the pass rush. Redfern and Bogar were waiting, sandwiching the senior and crumpling him to the turf inside CEFCU Stadium.

This wasn't the first time a sack saved the day, either.

Just before the half, with the Spartans marching down the field and looking for a cheap three, Jayden Williams and Cade Brook combined to crunch Weaver at the 25-yard line. The kicking unit bolted onto the field, but it was too late.

No timeouts. No time left.

That's the sequence that really left SJSU's soft-spoken, mild-mannered head coach shaking his head postgame.

"I lost that game," Ken Niumatalolo told the local press. "You can't mismanage the clock at the end of the half like that. It's horse crap on my part."

Wyoming finished this outing with a season-high four sacks. While these two instances were damaging, the latter forced an extra frame. In overtime, the Spartans got the first crack from the 25-yard line. A pair of short runs from Bates and a 5-yard hookup between Weaver and Jordan Anderson led to a 4th-and-1 opportunity.

That was a -- you guessed it -- throw to the outside of the hashes. This one, though, missed the mark. Pressure again caused the early, off-target throw.

Jay Sawvel said he implemented a goal-line defense, something his defense hadn't prepared for this week against this "spread-and-shred" attack.

"That's a sign of maturity, too," the third-year head coach said. "That's a group that said, 'Hey, OK, we're going to dust off a call that we haven't worked for a week or two, and you've got to go execute this.' And they did."

Hughes rushed the ball a career-high 27 times. He rolled up 92 hard-earned yards in the process. The last 18 were the most critical, banging away down to the SJSU 1-yard line before eventually taking a knee and allowing Erik Sandvik to trot onto the field for the 21-yard chip shot.

The ball did indeed coast right through those yellow pipes, after all.

Maybe it was a gift from above?

"I just said a little prayer," Sawvel admitted as his team headed into OT. "I said, 'Look, these guys have worked so hard. Let them be rewarded for it.'"

They were.

Wyoming 16, San Jose State 13 OT

UNSUNG HERO

His all-white uniform was anything but at the conclusion of this one.

It wasn't always pretty -- or effective -- but Tyler Hughes laid it all on the line to get the Cowboys in the win column Friday night in San Jose.

"He put the team on his back," Wilson said postgame.

"He's a competitor," Cheek added. "That's one thing about him, you can talk to him for 30 seconds and figure that out."

It looked like it was potentially going to be another forgettable night at the office for the graduate transfer. Pocket awareness wasn't always there. Decision making was not immediate, either. The throws were mostly all short. The big mistake -- a poorly-thrown interception in the red zone -- struck again. He was also stuffed on a QB sneak at the goal line.

He was also sacked a season-worst six times, including a blindside blast of the edge.

Still, the Georgia native stayed in the fight.

He connected on 16-of-24 passes for 114 yards. He also capped that all-important fourth-quarter drive with a perfectly-placed pass to Wilson in the end zone.

Many have called for his job as the turnovers continue to mount. The coaches haven't wavered in their support of Hughes.

"I told him during the week, 'Just go play. Go play football. Go. Just go. If something breaks down, go play. Go be yourself, and go lead.' And he did that."

QUOTEABLE

"We're not a work of art yet. We have a lot of work to do. Christian Taylor's like pulling his arms off his body and everything else right now, and I probably read the riot act to the offense more times on the headset today than I ever have. I told the defensive coaches -- I flipped over one time -- I said, 'You guys think you ever get it bad for me? You should have just seen what the offense did after we blow a timeout.' But, look, it's a work in progress."

-- Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel on the continued offensive struggles, inconsistencies after six games.

"I don't know if I've ever played in an overtime game before. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous, but I was having so much fun out there. I think the whole defense was having a great time. And, yeah, the offense was, too. We just had great energy. It was great to get a win."

-- Wyoming safety Brooklyn Cheek on getting a stop on SJSU's only offensive possession of overtime.

"It's a great feeling, but the team made my job easy. They basically made it like an extra point. You know, that's routine. So yeah, all credit goes to them."

-- Cowboy placekicker Erik Sandvik on banging through that 21-yard game-winning field goal in OT.

"That was rough. I immediately just tried to take my helmet off just to get some air because it was like, I can't breathe,"

-- Wyoming tight end Jake Wilson speaking about a violent hit to the midsection he took early in Friday night's game. He briefly left the field but returned before the half.

"That's a tough one to swallow. A really tough one to swallow. We should've won the game. Hats off to Jay (Sawvel) and Wyoming. But, yeah, that's a tough one to swallow."

-- A dejected SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo speaking to the local press after the 16-13 overtime loss to the visiting Cowboys.

"Coach is super responsive to all the ideas we have, and we all felt confident in that play. I put that ball up another another foot and Carson (Clark) probably catches that and we keep the drive going."

-- Spartan QB Luke Weaver on the 4th-down throw in overtime that didn't quite reach its destination.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Winless Northern Illinois (0-4, 0-0) will pay a visit to the high plains for the first time since the infamous triple-overtime thriller in 2016 when Josh Allen dove into the north end zone, giving the Cowboys a 40-34 victory. It's been rough sledding this fall in DeKalb under first-year head coach Rob Harley, who took the reins of the Huskies' program last February when former boss Thomas Hammock accepted a position with the Seattle Seahawks. NIU hosts Air Force tomorrow in search of not only a win but their first as a member of the Mountain West. The Cowboys (3-3, 2-1) and Huskies are scheduled to meet next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time inside War Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised on The CW.

MORE UW FOOTBALL NEWS VIA 7220SPORTS:

* Anatomy of an 8-Game Road Losing Streak

* Q&A With Frustrated Wyoming Offensive Coordinator Christian Taylor