Tuck’s Take: A Lot Had to Go Right on a Night When Little Did

BOULDER, Colo., -- A lot of things needed to go right on a night when little did.

Jay Sawvel, less than 48 hours removed from a 37-20 loss to Colorado inside a sold-out Folsom Field, laid out his vision for how he wanted the final 4:32 to play out.

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While most are still focused on the lack of urgency on a 13-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that chewed up 6:49 of game clock -- myself included -- Wyoming's second-year head coach still says it's his defense that was the ultimate culprit, thwarting any shot of a comeback in Boulder.

The "plan" was to force a three-and-out, something the Cowboys accomplished just one time on 10 Colorado possessions.

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Kaidon Salter and the Buffs didn't exactly cooperate at the end, either. A 10-yard scramble on first down forced Sawvel to hold onto a timeout. A 12-yard toss to Terrell Timmons Jr. on the third play reset the down-and-distance yet again.

Salter's 35-yard dash to the end zone with 1:46 to go was simply an exclamation point.

Let's just say this defense, one that allowed three yards shy of 500, did get that stop, keeping the deficit on the scoreboard at 10. Wyoming would still need a quick six with roughly two minutes remaining in regulation.

Sure, the offense was much more efficient over the final 30 minutes of this one, but it's still a big ask for a unit that ranks No. 100 overall in the country out of 134 FBS programs. Kaden Anderson would've had to make plays through the air. The sophomore signal caller rebounded nicely from a dreadful first half that saw him complete just 4-of-13 passes for 49 yards, but, overall, this team ranks 103rd, averaging just 185 yards an outing.

Maybe you feel better about that situation if anyone not named Chris Durr Jr. was doing anything in the passing game.

Jaylen Sargent has three catches through four games. So does Bricen Brantley. Jaylan Bean, Charlie Coenen and Clay Nanke have combined for seven. Michael Fitzgerald, a 6-foot-6 outside target, is sporting a goose egg.

So, what's the likelihood a 2-minute drill is executed to perfection? Couple that with a hostile environment of 53,000-plus in attendance.

Let's just say the visitors did catch lightning in a bottle, similar to the 4-play, 75-yard drive in the third quarter that culminated in a 41-yard touchdown grab by Eric Richardson.

Then comes the onside kick.

The success rate there, especially when the opponent knows it's coming, is astronomically low, hovering below 10%. Of 361 attempts last fall, 40, Sawvel added, were recovered by the hand's team.

He spent nearly the first 10 minutes of his Monday press conference discussing that final quarter and the criticism, accusations lobbed at him from ESPN play-by-play announcer Dave Fleming and color commentator Brock Osweiler, who openly suggested the Cowboys' staff was "basically conceding the game."

"The assertion that we were trying to keep the game close or something that way is one of the stupidest assertions that I've heard in a long time," Sawvel scoffed. "... When we started that series, the goal was we needed to get a touchdown. We needed to score. As long as, to me, it was outside of four-and-a-half minutes to go in the game and we didn't have to burn timeouts, we were still in a good spot."

While his blueprint does make plenty of sense, though highly unlikely, especially against a team with the caliber of athletes Colorado has, I'm still left wondering -- what the heck took so long?

The Cowboys huddled before all 13 snaps on that drive. Eight of those were run plays, including seven by the dynamic Samuel "Tote" Harris. There was even a delay-of-game penalty, one Sawvel called inexcusable, adding Anderson was checking into a different play.

Yes, he admitted, there could have been more urgency getting in and out of the huddle. Mixing up personnel packages and substituting players led to more precious time ticking off the clock, though he added Colorado was also subbing and play would've been held up anyway.

Sawvel said the scheme was to take what the Buffs' defense was giving them during that drive. Mainly lining up in a two-deep zone, the running game was still in play. When you have Harris in the backfield -- a rookie who ran a 10.2 100-yard dash in high school -- a home run could come at any time, he added.

"I don't know that it would have been in our best interest to just go wing it in two-minute mode with the defensive ends they had and having a new left tackle in there," Sawvel said, referring to Jake Davies, who stepped in for an injured Nate Geiger. "Look, do I wish that we scored in three plays and there were eight minutes to go in the game? Yeah, I do. I hope every time we get the ball we score in three plays, but we didn't."

Do I feel like the Cowboys waved the white flag? No.

Do I feel like the pipedream of having a lot of pieces fall into place at just the right moment was just that? Yes.

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In hindsight, you don't give up a safety on 3rd-and-8 from your own end zone, making this a one-possession game with that score. Ideally you also don't let Salter fire a 47-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Williams on the third play out of the locker room, already trailing by 18.

The optics were troubling. I'm still not clear on why this operation moved so slowly. The commentators weren't wrong about that. The postgame excuse of having freshmen on the field -- tight end Kyle Frendt and Harris -- wasn't jiving, either.

Sawvel was banking on Deion Sanders going the conservative route, following that touchdown. With a 10-point lead, milking clock, one would think, would be the top priority.

Colorado instead threw it twice.

Face it, the hole was just too deep. The Buffs, entering this one with a 1-2 overall record and a QB controversy, were in must-win mode. Now, that record is .500 and there's no doubt who will be under center Saturday night when BYU pays a visit.

If you're a glass-half-full kind of person, you can look at that controversial drive as a potential springboard into a much-needed bye week, followed by a conference slate that begins against unbeaten UNLV.

It all looked right. There was rhythm and execution.

It just took too long.