The Cowboys Push Past Texas State, 23-14

For a second straight game, the Wyoming Cowboys rallied for a victory. Saturday night, they won at Texas State, 23-14.

Senior Tyler Hall returned an interception 72-yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter. That gave the Cowboys a 20-14 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Even UW head coach Craig Bohl pointed to that play in comments released from the University of Wyoming.

“I think Tyler’s (Hall) interception turned the game around for us.”

Wyoming (2-0) trailed 14-3 but didn’t allow a point over the final 41 minutes of the game. It’s the first 2-0 start to a season for UW since 2014.

Bohl added, “I had this game circled at the beginning of the year as not necessarily a trap game, but a game we were going to need to be focused to win. They (Texas State) have a new coaching staff, and we knew they would have an explosive offense. We came off a big, emotional win last week against Missouri. I thought our guys weren’t as focused as they could have been at the start of this week, and we addressed that at practice but our players, played hard today.”

An 18-play drive that resulted in Cooper Rothe’s 19-yard field goal made it 23-14 with 10:19 left.

Texas State (0-2) got three possessions, but those finished with a punt, a missed field goal, and the end of the game.

The Cowboys missed a field goal on their first drive. The Bobcats came back and scored a touchdown for a 7-0 lead. Rothe connected on a 47-yard field goal that cut it to 7-3 early in the second quarter. Texas State came right back with a 50-yard TD pass and led 14-3.

UW QB Sean Chambers scored on a 7-yard run with just under three minutes left in the first half. It was 14-10 at halftime.

Rothe’s second field goal from 37-yards away on the Pokes’ first drive of the second half cut it 14-13. That was followed by Hall’s interception and then the long drive for the third field goal that took over 9 minutes off the clock.

Wyoming finished with 293 yards on offense. They ran for 190. Trey Smith rushed for 54 yards, Chambers 50, and Titus Swen added 45 yards. Chambers went 8-18 for 103 yards and one interception.

Logan Wilson led the Cowboys defense with 11 tackles, including one tackle for loss, and a quarterback hurry. C.J. Coldon added eight tackles. UW had five sacks, eight tackles for loss, a fumble recovery, and a pair of interceptions on defense.

Bohl also said, “I thought the offensive line did a great job of creating a push, particularly in the second half. Our defensive line got better and better as the game went along.”

Texas State had 444 yards of total offense. They threw for 394 yards, one touchdown, but two interceptions. The Bobcats were held to 50 yards rushing.

Wyoming returns home next Saturday to take on Idaho. That game will start at 3 p.m. in Laramie at War Memorial Stadium.