Turning Point, Unsung Hero and What’s Next For UW Football

LARAMIE -- Jay Sawvel, with clear disgust in his mannerisms, brought up that specific play four times during his postgame press conference.

Andrew Johnson, visible scratch marks up and down his arms and eye black smeared across his cheeks, called it the official turning point in the game.

Evan Eller, plainly exhausted, simply shook his head.

Get our free mobile app

Facing a 3rd-and-21 from the Cowboys' 46, Utah quarterback Devon Dampier took the shotgun snap and comfortably sat in the pocket with Wyoming rushing just three on the play. He surveyed. And surveyed. And surveyed a little more before finding tight end Dallen Bentley all by his lonesome near the home sideline.

The 6-foot-4, 259-pound senior snagged the easy heave and turned it up field before being shoved out of bounds by Esaia Bogar.

He's a defensive end.

"That wheel route is inexcusable," Sawvel said from behind the podium. "For us to not execute in that spot, to get us to the fourth quarter and it's 10-0, that was a very frustrating end. I know I keep going back to that, but that one there just agitates me to no end right now."

What happened?

"The corner is sitting out there and we have to play it," Wyoming's second-year head coach continued. "He missed the assignment ... We should have had someone all over that."

After that 23-yard hookup, Dampier completed his next two tosses, setting the 20th-ranked Utes at the 8-yard line. On the second-and-goal snap, the Cowboys decided to bring just four, giving the dynamic signal caller plenty of time to go through his dropback, lose a grip on the ball, scoop it back up and again look downfield where he found wideout Larry Simmons in the corner of the end zone.

That connection gave the visitors a 17-0 advantage, all but sealing Utah's third straight victory to open the season.

"It was definitely disappointing," said Johnson, a senior safety who registered 12 tackles and recovered a fumble in the loss. "I mean, as a defense, 3rd-and-21 sounds pretty great to us. Giving up that one, yeah, it's a gut-wrencher, a big momentum swing. We execute there, as a defense, we get them off the field."

Leading just 3-0 at the half -- a flurry of penalties and three missed field goals aided in that -- the Utes scored touchdowns on their final four possessions of the night.

The second one -- a 19-play, 80-yard drive that took 7:23 off the game clock -- was ultimately too much to overcome for a defense that was on the field for 86 snaps. Couple that with an inept offensive performance, one that managed just 229 yards, including 108 through the air, and it became insurmountable.

To make matters even more frustrating, Utah was flagged three times, losing the equivalent of 25 yards.

They made up for it -- and then some.

"I don't necessarily think it's a back breaker, but I think getting off the field right there, and giving our offense the ball again, would have been huge for us," said Eller, who also tallied a dozen stops from his middle linebacker spot.

No. 20 Utah 31, Wyoming 6

UNSUNG HERO

Aneesh Vyas is probably fourth in the pecking order at the defensive tackle spot.

With a healthy Dante Drake and Caleb Robinson in the lineup, the graduate transfer from Bucknell likely wouldn't even be in the rotation. The previous two suffered torn Achilles tendons late in fall camp. The 301-pound Ohio native was forced into action.

He's making the most of his opportunity, too.

Vyas finished with a season-best five tackles Saturday night, three of the solo variety. He also kept points off the board late in the first half, getting a paw on a 46-yard field-goal attempt off the right foot of Dillon Curtis to keep this game at 3-0, heading into the locker room.

This isn't his first rodeo, either.

In a 2023 meeting with Penn, the two-time All-Patriot League selection, blocked a pair of field goals in a 37-21 loss.

QUOTABLE

"I put this loss on myself, man. I gotta do better. I gotta do better. I missed a lot of throws. I gotta do better, man. You know, we're going to be really good. Like I said, that was a damn good football team."

-- Wyoming QB Kaden Anderson, who finished the night 12-of-23 for 108 yards, an interception and a fumble, on what went wrong for Wyoming's offense Saturday night in Laramie.

"They kind of started to find and just take, you know, what we were giving them. I didn't feel like our intent changed at all. I felt like we were still playing our butts off. But, you know, we just got to hold ourselves to that standard of how we played that first half. That's just a tale of two halves, and that's how it goes."

-- Wyoming linebacker Evan Eller on what changed after halftime, allowing Utah to score on all four of its possessions.

MORE UW FOOTBALL COVERAGE VIA 7220SPORTS:

* Gear Up For Game Day: Utah Utes

* Three Keys to a Wyoming Victory over No. 20 Utah

* UW Announces Improvements for Fans Entering The War

* Can Pokes Solve All-American Tackles to Even Get to Dampier?

* Whittingham Talks Experience as Opposing Player, Coach in Laramie

* PODCAST: Do You Consider Utah a 'Hated' Rival?

* Know Wyoming's Foe: No. 20 Utah Utes

* Sawvel on Dampier: 'I Wish We Were Done With Him'

* Utah' Ron McBride Tasked With Beating Cowboys

"I'm very confident in this team. I think, if anything, we showed that we can compete with any team in the nation. This was a very good football team. There's no denying that. But I think we're also a very good football team, and we're just going to continue to grow and use this as encouragement."

-- Wyoming safety Andrew Johnson on the takeaways from this 31-6 setback.

"We talked to the team and talked to our coaches, and to win this game, we had to be plus in turnovers. We weren't, OK? To win this game, we were going to have to win conversion downs. We didn't, OK? And to win this game, we were going to have to be efficient and effective, offensively, and control some clock, and we didn't do that, either. So those three markers were things that we needed to try to do -- and needed to be -- and we weren't good enough to do it. Utah was better than us in that situation tonight."

-- Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel on having to basically play an error-free game to pull off this upset over the Utes.

"Weird game. There was very similar yardage in the first and second half, but very different results. We just weren't finishing drives in the first half. I've got a lot of respect for that Wyoming team. They are tough players, well-coached and they gave us everything they have. Hats off to them. I really think they have a bright future."

-- Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham on his team scoring just three points over the first 30 minutes of this one inside War Memorial Stadium.

WHAT'S NEXT?

For the 28th time Wyoming and Colorado will meet on the gridiron. Kickoff next Saturday inside Boulder's Folsom Field is slated for 8:15 p.m. Mountain Time and the game will be televised on ESPN. The Buffaloes hold a commanding 23-3-1 advantage in the overall series, which dates back to 1900. The last meeting between these two came back in 2009. That was an easy 24-0 blanking, courtesy of Dan Hawkins' Buffs. The Cowboys last legit victory over CU -- the 1997 game, a 20-19 victory, was vacated by Colorado due to use of an ineligible player, Darren Fisk -- was all the way back in 1982. Despite fumbling on its first three possessions, Wyoming's defense held Craig Keenan the Buffs to under 200 yards in a 24-10 victory in Boulder. That team, which finished the year 5-7 under Al Kincaid, featured standouts Jay Novacek, Guy Frazier and Chuck Pagano, among others. The only other win for the Cowboys in this series was in 1935.

MORE UW FOOTBALL COVERAGE VIA 7220SPORTS:

* Jaylen Sargent Called Opening-Night Benching a 'Wake-Up Call'

* Tight End Justin Erb Doing All The Dirty Work For Unbeaten Cowboys

* Wyoming Downplaying Renewed Rivalry Matchup with No. 20 Utah

* Utah Notebook: You Again? Dampier Has Been Ultimate Thorn

* Wyoming Legends Recall '93 Barnburner Against Northern Iowa

* Josh Allen Announces His No. 17 Wyoming Jersey Will Be Retired

* Tyce Westland -- Quietly -- Continues to Carve Out His Path