The Wyoming Cowboys came into Thursday night’s 112th Edition of the “Border War” looking for their fifth consecutive victory in the series. But a pair of first-quarter turnovers, converted into 14 points by Colorado State, proved a deficit UW couldn’t overcome. The Pokes lost 34-24 to the Rams in Fort Collins.

“Colorado State came out with a hard edge and they executed well,” said Cowboy head coach Craig Bohl. “I think we did some things that were uncharacteristic of us. Typically, we’ve been ahead on the turnover margin and that didn’t occur tonight.  And I thought we had way more penalties than we normally do.

Bohl added that, “When you play a rivalry game you need to be on point and we weren’t. ... We have to take ownership of our performance and have some hard conversations about where we’re at and how we respond.”

Wyoming junior running back Xazavian Valladay recorded his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game of the season, running for 147 yards on the night. Redshirt freshman quarterback Levi Williams had a career best day passing, completing 19 of 31 passes (61.2%) for 321 yards, but was involved in both first quarter turnovers — tossing a pick six and fumbling the ball.

Senior wide receiver Ayden Eberhardt caught seven passes for a career-best 132 yards. Defensively, junior middle linebacker Chad Muma led all defenders with a career high 17 tackles.

As a team, Wyoming out-gained Colorado State with 465 yards of total offense to CSU’s 342. But CSU did not commit a turnover and was able to come up with big plays at critical times of the game.

The Rams got out to a 17-0 lead. Wyoming cut the advantage to 24-14 at halftime, and trailed just 31-24 with 8:18 remaining, but CSU added a field goal and held off the Pokes in the closing minutes.

The Cowboys will have to wait another week to respond to the loss, as an upward trend in cases at the Air Force Academy led to the cancellation of Saturday’s game in Laramie. The Pokes will instead return to action on Thursday, Nov. 19, when they host Utah State.