by Robert Gagliardi , Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

rgagliardi@wyomingnews.com

SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Wyoming was close to surprising many in the college football world on Saturday night.

The Cowboys led No. 19 Utah 10-9 heading into the fourth quarter.

But the Cowboys' offense was stymied in the second half, couldn't get anything going and the defense gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 22-10 loss in front of 44,837 at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Halloween.

UW dropped its second straight game, fell to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the Mountain West Conference. Utah improved to 7-1, 4-0.

The Cowboys led 10-3 at halftime, but managed just four first downs and 74 yards of offense in the second half.

"We're struggling a little bit right now on offense, but when you play some of the top defenses in the country week in and week out there are going to be some struggles when you've got the youth that we have," first-year UW coach Dave Christensen said.

In its previous game against Air Force, UW lost 10-0 and managed just 174 yards against a defense that entered this week eighth nationally in scoring (13.2 points per game) and ninth in total defense (266.8 yards per game).

Utah allowed 17.7 points and 308.3 yards per game, both in the top 25 nationally. It held UW to 202 yards, including 21 in the third quarter.

"The defense played well all night," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.

UW's lone touchdown was the result of some razzle-dazzle.

True freshman quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels

See UW, page B2

Continued from B1

threw a lateral to junior backup quarterback Robert Benjamin. Benjamin threw it back to Carta-Samuels who ran it 30 yards for a touchdown with 4 minutes, 56 seconds left in the second quarter.

Benjamin lined up at quarterback at times, but he mostly played receiver and caught three passes for 17 yards.

But in the fourth quarter, a third-down pass from Carta-Samuels at mid-field deflected off Benjamin's hands and was intercepted by senior cornerback R.J. Sanford.

Utah was up 16-10 at the time and for the first time in the second half UW was moving the ball with some success.

The Utes didn't score after the interception, but the miscue ended a nice-looking drive that was, arguably, the Cowboys' best chance to score in the second half.

"I think if I would have caught that pass we would have drove the rest of the way for a touchdown," Benjamin said. "I take that upon myself. I need to make plays and that was asked of me on that play. I didn't do it. For that, I feel like we lost the game with that critical error."

UW had other miscues on offense, though.

Carta-Samuels was dropped and fumbled at UW's 9-yard line on the Cowboys' next possession. Utah scored its final touchdown two plays later on a 5-yard run by junior running back Eddie Wide, who finished with 135 yards.

UW committed seven penalties, allowed five quarterback sacks and made only 2 of 13 third-down conversions.

"We had a bunch of penalties that killed us again," Carta-Samuels said. "The unfamiliar is what got us. They switched some things up (defensively in the second half) and we weren't able to adjust to it."

Much of that, Carta-Samuels added, involved pass coverages. He said the Utes didn't show as much man-to-man looks as he expected.

But one Utah defender disagreed.

"We didn't change up anything," senior linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said. "We ran the same schemes, but just executed better."

UW's defense held its own once again, but also fell upon more hard luck.

It forced two fumbles but didn't recover any of them, and true freshman cornerback Kenny Browder had a pass from true freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn, who came in the second half in place of junior Terrance Cain, go through his hands.

If Browder intercepted the pass he may have returned it for a touchdown as there were no Utah players around him.

"It's all about the final score," said sophomore linebacker Brian Hendricks, who was one of three UW players to record a game-high 12 tackles. "We played a great first half of football but it doesn't matter if you can't finish in the fourth quarter."

UW plays its first home game in nearly a month against Brigham Young (6-2, 3-1) at noon this coming Saturday.

"We took the 16th-ranked team to the final minutes so I think that's progress," Christensen said. "In the last eight minutes we had a chance to win the football game, that's all you can ask for at this point and time.

"But it's not a moral victory. We got our tails kicked at the end."

Injury report

No injuries were reported.

Extra points

UW is 25-15-1 all-time following bye weeks, and 5-7 this decade. . The Cowboys fell to 7-6 in games played on Halloween. . Hendricks, junior safety Chris Prosinski and sophomore linebacker Gabe Knapton all had 12 tackles. UW has had 25 individual double-digit tackle games from players this season. . Carta-Samuels is the fifth different player to catch a touchdown pass for UW this season. . Wide recorded his fifth straight 100-yard game, which is a Utah record.

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