LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — BYU extended its winning streak to 10 games over Wyoming with a dominant 34-14 win Saturday night in what could be the final meeting between the longtime rivals at War Memorial Stadium.
The Cougars (3-0) jumped out to an early 14-point lead in their 80th all-time meeting with Wyoming (0-3). BYU took advantage of a sputtering Cowboys offense, outgaining them 458-217 total yards.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff bounced back from an interception in the first quarter, finishing 22-of-36 passing for 291 yards and three touchdowns while adding 62 yards rushing. Chase Roberts had 129 yards receiving on six catches.
“I’m happy that we are 3-0, and I’m proud of the team,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “I thought the energy and effort, all the stuff that we want from our guys showed up. It didn’t go perfectly, but there were some really good things to work on.
“I feel like we got better from last week to this week, and we are looking forward to making an improvement from this week to the next.”
Aside from a pair of scoring drives, Wyoming struggled to move the ball. The Cowboys totaled eight punts and collected just 12 first downs to BYU’s 23. Evan Svoboda completed 14 of 32 (44%) for 140 yards and an interception. He added 31 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
“I wanted to win this game more than anybody,” Wyoming coach Jay Sawvel said. “I wanted to win this game for the fans. I wanted to win this game for the state of Wyoming and everything else. We were going to have to play great football in order to win this game, and we didn’t do it.”
The Cougars opened the scoring with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Retzlaff to tight end Keanu Hill midway through the first quarter. BYU extended the lead to 14-0 early in the second with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Retzlaff to Kody Epps to cap a nine-play, 74-yard drive.
The Cowboys cut the lead in half with a 2-yard touchdown run by Svoboda four minutes later after an 11-play, 75-yard drive, and BYU tacked on a 49-yard field goal by Will Ferrin with 45 seconds left in the first half to take a 17-7 lead into the break.
Keelan Marion opened the second half with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for BYU to go up 17. A 30-yard pass from Retzlaff to Roberts set up 37-yard field goal for Ferrin on BYU’s first offensive drive of the third quarter.
The Cougars put the game out of reach with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Retzlaff to Darius Lassiter to go up 34-7 going into the fourth quarter. Svoboda ran into Wyoming’s last points of the night on a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:29 left to play.
“It wasn’t perfect, but we got to play some complimentary football,” Sitake said. “The guys have worked really hard. We are excited with where we are at right not, but we’re not satisfied. We’ve got to keep working but we are going to celebrate and appreciate the wins.”
BYU and Wyoming were both members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Mountain States, Western Athletic and Mountain West before the former became independent in 2011. The teams have no dates on future schedules in a rivalry that dates back to 1922. The Cougars improved to 47-30-3 all-time against the Cowboys with Saturday’s win.
“For us to have won that game, we were going to need to win that thing like 24-21, 21-17 or something like that,” Sawvel said. “We let ourselves down in all three phases of being able to win that game. There was a pathway to win it, and it was a narrow pathway, and we didn’t find it.”
THE TAKEAWAY
BYU: Will enter Big 12 play 3-0 for the second consecutive season.
Wyoming: The loss gives the Cowboys their first 0-3 start since the 2015 season.
UP NEXT
BYU: Plays host to No. 14 Kansas State, which beat No. 20 Arizona on Friday.
Wyoming: Travels to face North Texas, which lost 66-21 on the road at Texas Tech on Saturday.
___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
