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

LAS VEGAS -- This one appeared headed for heartbreak.

Tyson Shamsid-Deen had other plans.

Wyoming's second-year cornerback said he knew No. 8 was the intended target. Taeshaun Lyons started the play in the left slot. He quickly made his way across the formation after the snap and was cruising toward the far hash, with safety Jones Thomas glued to his hip.

Alex Orgi, who replaced an ineffective Jackson Arnold late in the third quarter, faked the inside handoff at the Cowboys' 11-yard line with under two minutes remaining in regulation and immediately sprinted to his right. In hot pursuit, edge rusher Esaia Bogar was quickly gaining ground. The former Michigan signal caller fired a pass across his body into the back of the end zone.

It didn't reach its intended target.

"He was eyeing him," Shamsid-Deen said of the potential Orji-to-Lyons connection. "I was like, 'He's going to throw it. You going to throw it?' So, hey, I'm T-money. You know, gotta make money plays."

The San Antonio product did just that, hauling in his second interception of the night and lifting the Cowboys to the six-win mark and a 5-1 record in Mountain West play.

By the way, Shamsid-Deen is also playing with a bulky white club on his surgically-repaired right hand.

"That's extremely impressive with the club," said Wyoming linebacker Ethan Stuhlsatz, who capped this outing with a team-best 10 tackles and three quarterback sacks. "I couldn't imagine. I've never had to play with the club, but especially as a (defensive back), that's really tough. I'm proud of him. He's come a long way."

Shamsid-Deen suffered the hand injury in a forgettable Week-3 road loss at Central Michigan. He missed the following three games against Hawaii, North Dakota State and San Jose State.

Wyoming's third-year head coach admitted he said a prayer or two in the late stages of that October overtime road victory over the Spartans. On Saturday night inside Allegiant Stadium, Jay Sawvel watched as a 20-point second-half lead slowly began to evaporate in the desert, starting with a turnover on downs sandwiched between a pair of Rebel touchdowns.

Orgi and Co. appeared to be on their way to pulling this one out of the fire late. A 16-yard run by Jai-Den Thomas sparked that final drive. The Mountain West's leading rusher went for 22 more on the ensuing play. Orgi then took it himself for 12.

With momentum clearly on the home sideline, Sawvel slowly walked around his defensive huddle during the two-minute timeout. What was going through his mind?

"I was like, 'OK, we've come too far to have it happen like this,'" he said postgame. "And two plays later, Tyson intercepts that ball.

"I'm living blessed right now."

Landon Sims, who replaced an injured Tyler Hughes late in the first half, said he wasn't surprised one bit by that defensive stand.

"Big faith in our defense," the junior signal caller said after completing 2-of-6 throws on the night for 25 yards a touchdown and an interception. "You know, I watch these guys every day, every practice, make plays and stuff like that. You know, all season really."

Wyoming, after winning just seven combined games over the previous two seasons, is now eligible for the postseason. More importantly, this team still controls its own destiny with two conference games remaining on the schedule, including a date with the front-running New Mexico Lobos in Laramie in two weeks.

The "big-ass speaker" was blaring from the visiting locker room postgame. Players and coaches alike were wearing hats that feature the words "bowl bound." The thousands of Wyoming fans in attendance gave their beloved Cowboys a standing ovation as they exited the field.

While that's all good and well, the mission is still not complete. A major hurdle, though, was cleared in Sin City.

"This team plays hard, and they have such a great spirit about themselves. I'm so proud of them," Sawvel said with a smile. "But, like we said in the locker room after the game, yeah, this was a big win and we're going to enjoy this -- we'll get our ice cream on the plane, we'll fly back and we'll have a good time -- but all we've done is make next week a big week."

Wyoming 41, UNLV 35

UNSUNG HERO

He finished the night with just one catch, but it was a big one.

Ke'Lyn Washom, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound wideout, streaked down the home sideline late in the second quarter and pulled off something that has been far too rare over the last handful of years: hauled in a contested catch.

The Houston product snagged the 32-yarder over the tip of UNLV defenders Avery Helm and Kyron Chambers. Hughes, at that time, had no grip in his throwing hand thanks to a forearm injury, according to a source familiar with the situation. He completed one more pass, a 10-yard dump to Samuel "Tote" Harris, and was sidelined for the remainder of the game.

Two snaps later, Sims scampered into the end zone from 13 yards out, giving the Cowboys a 31-21 lead. The visitors would tack on a 35-yard field goal just before the half, courtesy of Shamsid-Deen's first pick of the night.

Washom left the game with a hip injury after coming down with that ball.

"He's got strong hands," Sawvel said. "That was a great catch."

QUOTEABLE

“I’m extremely disappointed in our performance tonight. I want to give Wyoming credit on a great plan against us on both sides of the ball. They came out and did a lot of things defensively that they haven’t done all year. They had a good offensive plan against us, and have to give them credit. I’m really disappointed with our performance in the first half. We’ve got a lot of things we have to fix, but competing in the second half wasn’t one of them. Our guys came out at halftime, and I had challenged them to compete. I don’t think we even competed much in the first half and we didn’t play very hard, which is on me and that’s really disappointing. We had some critical errors offensively and defensively right there at the very end of the game ... that cost us an opportunity to find a way to win.”

-- UNLV head coach Dan Mullen after a gut-wrenching loss that all but eliminates the Rebels from the conference title conversation.

"It was a very great moment. I know how to handle adversity very well. I might be young, but I handled adversity very well. I watched a lot of film on them, and I knew that play was coming and I just jumped it."

-- Wyoming cornerback Tyson Shamsid-Deen on his game-saving interception in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.

"There's a reason I hired him, and there's a reason that I I love having him as the offensive coordinator. I know I use the Utah parallel at times and things like that, but one of the things that they described about their offense a year ago was the fact that players had fun. I think when you look at us, offensively, right now our players are having fun. That makes it easy to go to work when players show up at work and they enjoy it on a daily basis."

-- Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel, talking about his play-caller Christian Taylor and a trick play in the second quarter that worked to perfection. Starting QB Tyler Hughes threw a lateral out to his back-up Landon Sims, who then found a wide-open Jake Wilson for an 18-yard touchdown toss.

"That was awesome. It kind of felt like a home game, seeing all those people. I mean, I get it -- everyone wants to come to Vegas. But, no, it shows our fans travel and they really support us."

-- Wyoming linebacker Ethan Stuhlsatz on the fan support from the brown-and-gold sections in the lower bowl of Allegiant Stadium.

"There's definitely a buzz. You know, like coach Sawvel talked about earlier, for this game, there's definitely a buzz. We're rolling right now. We feel really good. We feel like we're playing good ball. You know, we just gotta keep it going."

-- Wyoming QB Landon Sims speaking postgame about the Cowboys' becoming bowl eligible and sitting all alone in second place in the conference with just two league games remaining.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Wyoming (6-3, 5-1) will travel to El Paso Saturday to face former WAC rival UTEP. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. Mountain Time and the game will be televised on FS1. These two have tangled 33 times and the Cowboys have a commanding 26-6-1 all-time record in the series. The last meeting came all the way back in 1995. Joe Tiller's squad rolled to an easy 42-19 victory inside the famed Sun Bowl. The Miners have been winless in 10 straight against the Cowboys. That includes a 28-28 tie in Laramie in 1991. UTEP dropped to 1-8 on the season and 0-5 in Mountain West play Saturday after a 17-14 home loss to Hawaii. The Miners have lost seven straight.

MORE UW FOOTBALL NEWS VIA 7220SPORTS:

* Hughes Suffers Forearm Injury, Timetable for Return Unknown

* Cowboys Hang on For Dramatic 41-35 Victory Over UNLV

* Rants and Raves: UNLV edition

* Final Live File: Wyoming 41, UNLV 34

* Gear Up For Game Day: UNLV Rebels

* Know Wyoming's Foe: UNLV Rebels

* UNLV Notebook: Visitors Need to Limit Offensive Fireworks

* PODCAST: Let's Drop Some Big "If" Bombs This Week

* Retention Negotiations Set to Begin During Cowboys' Bye Week

* GALLERY: Winning Most Certainly Wasn't For The Birds

* Behind the Numbers: Pokes Limit Explosive Plays in Win