2006 Week 5

LARAMIE, Wyoming - In the last month, all anyone has wanted to talk about in Laramie was Cowboys wide receiver Andre Kirkpatrick. The Colorado Buffalos knew that stopping the Wyoming offense hinged on shutting down Kirkpatrick. The Buffalos bumped him on every route, and doubled him most of the day, limiting the star receiver to just 13 yards on two catches. It wasn't enough, however, as two other Wyoming receivers, redshirt freshman Raheem Wesley and true freshman Rufus Johnson, combined for 353 yards and five scores, as the Cowboys rolled to a 52- 20 victory.

"The scary thing about Wyoming is that they're so young, especially on offense," Buffalo head coach Gary Barnett said after the game. I can't believe both those receivers are freshmen."

The problem for opposing defenses is that Wyoming has so many ways of creating mismatches in the passing game. When Colorado focused on taking away the speed advantage on one side, the Cowboys exploited the size of their receivers on the other. Wesley (6'6", 207 pounds) and Johnson (6'1", 170 pounds) spent much of the day in single coverage against an overmatched Vance Washington, who stands just 5'9" and weighs 180 pounds.

Wesley, especially, took advantage of his nine inch, 30 pound size advantage to catch nine passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Wesley was covered on every catch, but Washington simply couldn't get position to knock the ball away.

"I was very impressed by the performance Wesley put on out there today," head coach Joe Glenn told reporters. "He did an excellent job shielding the ball from the defender with his huge frame, and did some impressive things after he caught the ball. I almost feel bad for that poor kid who had to cover him, it really wasn't fair. If these kids keep this up, then we should be in good shape on offense for the next several years."

As impressive as the offense was, the defense played at least as well. For the second time in three weeks, the Cowboys harassed their opponent into at least three turnovers. They forced four against the Buffalos today, on three interceptions and one fumble. They also held Colorado scoreless in the first half, and kept them out of the red zone the entire game.

The Cowboys struggled to hold onto the ball themselves, fumbling five times, but were able to recover four of them.

"Except for the fumbles, this was an excellent team game," Glenn analyzed. "Being down, the Buffalos were trying to strip the ball every carry, but we still need to do a better job hanging onto the rock. We were lucky to have guys in position to recover most of them today, but we can't rely on luck to be there every week."

The win gives the Cowboys four on the year. Wyoming has next week off before facing a dangerous Nevada squad that knocked the Cowboys off 35 - 31 last year in Laramie.