Cowboys taking pass on air game

L AR A MIE» Wyoming hasn’t had a problem running the ball with Nico Evans.

The Cowboys’ senior running back has gashed defenses when he has been on the field. Of the four games Evans has played — he missed two with bruised ribs — he’s rushed for at least 140 yards in three of them while his 7.8 yards per carry is tops in the Mountain West.

Balancing out Evans’ production through the air has been the seasonlong issue.

Wyoming is near the bottom nationally in most offensive categories, ranking 126th out of 129 FBS teams in both points and yards largely because of a passing game that’s producing less than 149 yards each time out, which is good for 119th nationally. The Cowboys are also next to last in thirddown conversion rate.

“We’re off,” Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said. “We’re not playing efficiently enough for us to win ball games.”

From a group of receivers that’s yet to have one establish himself as a goto target, an offensive line that’s starting three underclassmen and a freshman quarterback that’s still learning the nuances of playing the position at the Football Bowl Subdivision level in Tyler Vander Waal, Bohl said the reason for that is widespread. Vander Waal has largely stayed away from mistakes with just two interceptions, but the 6foot4, 220pounder hasn’t done much more than manage games. He has thrown for 889 yards and three scores to this point while completing just 54.6 percent of his passes.

Vander Waal, who’s eclipsed the 200yard mark just once against FBS opponents this season, has thrown for less than 100 yards in two games, including last week’s 1713 loss at Hawaii. Coaches and players said the game plan was to lean on Evans against a suspect Hawaii defense, one that worked with Evans rushing for a careerhigh 192 yards on 24 carries. But the Cowboys rarely took advantage of man coverage on the outside with the Warriors creeping seven, eight and sometimes nine defenders toward the line of scrimmage.

Vander Waal finished 9of16 for just 87 yards.

And any negative play that put Wyoming behind the chains early in a possession essentially killed it. The Cowboys went just 2 of 12 on third down, dropping their conversion rate for the season to 29.3 percent. Only Old Dominion (28 percent) has been worse on third down this season.

“We certainly can’t be onedimensional. We’ve got to open up the playbook some more this week,” Bohl said.