A tale of two halves

On an amaz­ing autumn day the Wyoming Cow­boys 1–3 (0−1 MWC) took on the Air Force Fal­cons 3–1 (2−0 MWC) to begin their Moun­tain West Con­fer­ence sea­son. It was Mil­i­tary Day at Jonah Field and all mem­bers of the armed forces, those who are with us and those who no longer are, were hon­ored before the National Anthem. The Cow­boys faced the Fal­cons for the 49^th time. Air Force leads the series 26−20−3.

In the first quar­ter both teams worked the clock and moved the ball down the field. Both teams got within 10 yards of the end­zone but nei­ther team could put any points on the board. Wyoming’s Austyn Carta-Samuels threw in inter­cep­tion in the end­zone for the only turnover of the game. The Fal­cons then marched down the field with rel­a­tive ease, to end the first quarter.

To start the sec­ond quar­ter Air Force attempts a short field goal but misses wide right. The Cow­boys get the ball on their own 20-yard-line and take Air Force’s option down the field for an even­tual rush­ing touch­down by Alvester Alexan­der. The Fal­cons then did the same and scored a rush­ing touch­down of their own by Jared Tew. The Fal­cons then moved the ball down the field very quickly for a field goal attempt to end the half. Unfor­tu­nately for the Fal­cons, the snap was short and then muffed. No kick attempted. At half­time the game was tied at 7–7.

In the first half Wyoming’s offense was led by run­ning back Alvester Alexan­der with 16 rushes for 110 yards and a touch­down. Austyn Carta-Samuels was 1-for-3 with an inter­cep­tion and 37 rush­ing yards. Wyoming actu­ally led in rush­ing 140 yards –135 yards.

Air Force was led sta­tis­ti­cally by quar­ter­back Tim Jef­fer­son who went 4-for-8 for 58 yards and also rushed for 41 yards. The Fal­cons also rode the legs of run­ning­back Jared Tew who ran for 61 yards on 11 car­ries and a touch­down. The Fal­cons got the ball to begin the sec­ond half.

The sec­ond half was not much like the first half. The Pokes just couldn’t keep up with the dom­i­nat­ing offense of Air Force’s option. The Cow­boys did their best in the third quar­ter and put them­selves ahead of the Fal­cons 14–7, but their lead didn’t last long. After Wyoming put them­selves ahead on the score­board they were pul­ver­ized by a 16 play drive that took over eight min­utes off the clock.

The fur­ther that the game went into the sec­ond half – the more dom­i­nat­ing the Air Force option seemed to be. In the fourth quar­ter the Cow­boys offense strug­gled hor­ri­bly and gave up the ball with a late inter­cep­tion which put the Cow­boys hopes of vic­tory out of reach. Final score at War Memo­r­ial Sta­dium on Mil­i­tary Day was 20–14 in favor of the Falcons.

Lead­ing in sta­tis­tics for Wyoming was Alexan­der with 22 car­ries for 123 yards and two rush­ing touch­downs. Carta-Samuels went 6-for-11 for 66 yards with two inter­cep­tions and 60 yards on the ground. Wear­ing Ruben Narcisse’s num­ber 12 jer­sey was Chris Prosin­ski who had and inter­cep­tion in the third quarter.

The Fal­cons were led by Jef­fer­son who went 5-for-12 with 66 yards and an inter­cep­tion as well as 94 yards and a touch­down on the ground. Air Force was also led by Tew who had 27 car­ries for 136 yards and a touch­down. Run­ning back Nathan Walker also con­tributed a touch­down and 24 yards on the ground.

Next week the Cow­boys are on the road to face the Toledo Rock­ets 3–1 (2−0 MAC) in Ohio. That game will be fol­lowed by a trip to #4 TCU 4–0 before the Cow­boys return home. The fol­low­ing week won’t be much eas­ier for the Cow­boys. When Wyoming finally returns home, they will face their MWC rivals #13 Utah 3–0 (2−0 MWC).