Big win for Joe Glenn and the Cowboys. :thumb:
It has been said that football is a game of inches.
That was never more true then on Saturday when TCU’s Chris Manfredini’s 48-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the game glanced off the right upright and outside the goal posts, leaving the University of Wyoming with a heart-pounding 24-21 victory over preseason Mountain West Conference favorite TCU.
The game was the 300th played in War Memorial Stadium, which was built in 1950, and it was one that will be talked about for some time to come.
The Cowboys seemed well in control after building a 24-6 lead with 8:25 remaining before letting the Horned Frogs back in the game.
Following a 23-yard field goal by Billy Vinnedge to give the Cowboys their seeming comfortable 18-point cushion, about everything that could go wrong for the Cowboys did.
It all began with a 34-yard kickoff return by the Frogs’ Marcus Brock to near midfield. Seven plays later, TCU got its first touchdown of the game on a broken play when redshirt freshman quarterback Andy Dalton found wide receiver Ervin Dickerson on a 26-yard scoring pass. Dalton then passed to wide receiver Donald Massey for the two-point conversion to give the Frogs some hope.
The Cowboys maintained a 24-14 lead with 6½ minutes in the game.
Wyoming, which ran all over the TCU defensive behind their Thunder and Lightning combination of juniors Devin Moore and Wynel Seldon throughout the game, was unable to pick up a first down on a 3rd-and-1 at the UW 29-yard line.
The situation took another bad twist for the Cowboys when Vinnedge, who had a punt blocked earlier in the game, could not handle a wide snap from center and was smothered on his own 15-yard line on another fierce rush, led by William Cage with 4:40 remaining.
Six plays and two minutes later, TCU was back in the end zone. This time it was a 5-yard pass from Dalton to wide receiver Bart Johnson. Manfredini’s PAT brought the Frogs within a field goal at 24-21 with 2:17 left.
Manfredini’s high on-side kick downfield sailed out of bounds and the Cowboys took over on their own 41-yard line.
Again, Wyoming was unable to get a first down. Vinnedge got his punt off and TCU took over on its 20-yard line with only 1:17 remaining in the game.
Dalton again quickly took his team down field with no timeouts. It took 10 plays, but the Frogs’ moved into field goal range on a seven-yard third down pass to running back Aaron Brown to the UW 31-yard line.
Following a Wyoming timeout with just :06 left, Mafredini, saw his 48-yard field goal attempt to tie the game and put it into overtime, glance off the right upright.
“We thought it would be close and we got relaxed there for awhile,” said Wyoming coach Joe Glenn. “They made a run, but we held on. I really thought the ‘Pokes played great. We played hard. We made a mistake in our punt (blocking) and then snapped the ball off to the side a bit and Billy (Vinnedge) couldn’t get it off. The next thing you know, they were on a roll. The Mo (momentum was wearing purple.”
Even though the score and the final stats were even, they didn’t truly reflect how Wyoming took control of the game behind a tough defense and the running of Moore and Seldon.
TCU came into the game with a well-deserved reputation of being able to stuff the run. During Gary Patterson’s 79-game tenure as the Frogs’ head coach, only 13 opposing players had been able to reach the 100-yard rushing mark. Yesterday, two more were added to the list.
Moore continued his electrifying performance by rushing for 138 yards in 23 tries, while the hard-running Seldon added 100 yards in 20 tries and a touchdown. While Moore and Seldon combined for 238 yards, the Cowboys finished the contest with 232 net yards.
“We made the plays on offense; we were really efficient,” Glenn said. “Thunder and Lightning were unbelievable. They are two tough running backs. You have to take your hat off to offensive line for blocking for those guys.
“I also thought Coach (Billy) Cockhill did a real nice job of managing the game and the clock with our no-huddle offense. All of the plays we called from the line of scrimmage came from up top. He takes a look at the defense and gets us in the right plays,” Glenn added
The Cowboys’ effective running game made things a lot easier for UW sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween, who completed 12 of 26 passes for 134 yards, including a pair of touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Hoost Marsh. And although Sween was pressured he was sacked only once.
“Our offensive line really competed at a high level,” Glenn said. “Coach (Chad) Germer has to be tickled pink with the way we played up front. We gave up only one sack. You go back a year ago to this game and TCU just dominated us. What a difference a year makes. Our kids just competed so well and I’m very happy with the protection they gave Karsten today.”
The Cowboy defense also came up big, limiting the athletic Frogs to only a pair of field goals in the first half before being put behind the 8-ball in the final eight minutes due to the mistakes.
Although TCU finished the game with 134 yards rushing on 43 tries, the yards didn’t come easy. TCU’s dangerous junior tailback Aaron Brown managed only 50 yards in 14 tries. Overall, the Frogs managed only 3.1 yards per carry and didn’t have a run longer than 13 yards.
TCU did most of its offensive damage through the air behind the arm of Dalton. The youngster completed 20 of 31 passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Most of the damage came in the last eight minutes when the Frogs were making their unexpected comeback.
The first half turned into a defensive struggle after an opening flurry.
TCU scored on its first possession of the game when it got the ball on the Wyoming 34 after a Sween pass deflected off a receiver and was intercepted by a diving TCU end Jerry Hughes.
Three offensive plays produced nothing and the Frogs had to settle for a career-long 51-yard field goal by Manfredini with the wind at his back. Ironically, this field goal attempt also glanced off the right goal post, but went through the pipes for a 3-0 TCU lead just 2½ minutes into the game.
It took the Cowboys only 17 seconds to respond. The Cowboys went 80 yards in just two plays — a 15-yard run by Moore and a 65-yard scoring pass from Sween to Marsh. Marsh was able to get behind the TCU secondary and Sween was on the money with the pass. Vinnedge’s conversion left Wyoming with a 7-3 lead with just over three minutes gone.
The next 27 minutes turned into a defensive struggle even though the Wyoming offense dominated the first period in yardage and possession time (162 yards and 10:02) and TCU the second period (137 yards and 9:54).
The only score came with :06 remaining in the first half when Manfredini was good on a 32-yard field goal attempt, leaving the Cowboys with a 7-6 lead at the intermission break.
The third quarter belonged entirely to Wyoming, and the momentum turned in the Cowboys’ favor when senior cornerback Michael Median picked off a Dalton pass on the UW 47-yard line.
The Cowboys then combined the passing of Sween and the running of Moore and Seldon to go 53 yards in 10 plays for their second touchdown of the game. The TD came on an 8-yard pass from Sween to Marsh, who got behind the TCU defense. Vinnedge’s PAT made it 14-6 in Wyoming’s favor with 6:25 left in the quarter.
After the UW defense stopped the Frogs on three plays, the Cowboys got the ball back on their own 35-yard line. A 23-yard run by Seldon and three pass-interference penalties on TCU, the Cowboys were back in the end zone again. The score came on a two-yard run by Seldon following a pass-interference penalty in the end zone. Again Vinnedge converted and Wyoming’s lead was suddenly 21-6 with just under three minutes left in the quarter.
TCU received a glimmer of hope early in the fourth quarter, when Derek Walsh’s punt was downed on the Wyoming one-yard line. A stop here or a blocked punt and the Frogs were back in the game.
Instead, the Cowboys, behind the running or Moore and Seldon, proceeded to go on a 13-play, 93-yard drive. The longest drive of the season took a little more than five minutes off the clock and resulted in a 23-yard field goal by Vinnedge and a 24-6 Wyoming lead with just 8:25 left in the game.
At that point, the Frogs appeared dead in the water.
Then came the 34-yard kickoff return by Brock and the momentum switched to TCU. Everything had to go right for TCU to get back into the game, and it did.
The final outcome came down to a matter of inches when Manfredini’s late kick was just a little bit to far to the right.
“Credit the Cowboys; we hung in there. The defense came in and closed the game down,” Glenn said. “We played in stretches pretty good. The bottom line is we played good enough to win the game.
“It’s a big win against the only team we haven’t beaten in my era,” Glenn continued. “I couldn’t be happier with the turnaround our kids have made. This kind of shows you the way our program is headed. A year ago we were 1-4 and now we’re 4-1 with a big win over a very good TCU team. We’ll celebrate this one tonight, but tomorrow we will go back to work for another day.”
With the win, Wyoming improved to 4-1 for the season overall and to 1-0 in MWC play. Meanwhile, TCU saw its overall record level off at 3-3, but even more importantly, the Frogs may be out of the race for the conference championship with a 1-2 mark.
