Anyone wanting to examine a microcosm of how Saturday’s BYU football 38-24 win over Wyoming went should take a few minutes to watch the final two drives of the first half.

The Cowboys had a 10-7 lead and had a chance to extend the advantage but were pinned deep in their own territory.

Wyoming converted a third down with a throw to a wide-open running back out of the backfield and had a couple more nice gainers to get to the 34-yard line.

But then a couple of runs went nowhere and on third down, Cowboy quarterback Andrew Peasley was sacked for a big loss by Cougar defensive lineman John Nelson to force the punt.

When BYU got the ball back, it was also a mixed bag.

There were nice passes from Cougar quarterback Keanu Hill to wide receivers Keanu Hill, Puka Nacua and Brayden Cosper — but there was a negative play and also miscommunications resulting in BYU having to burn all their timeouts and nearly run out the clock.

Still, with all the failures, Hill came through by firing a perfect pass to Cosper, who tapped his foot just barely in bounds to give the Cougars the 14-10 lead at the break.

That was pretty much how the entire game went for both teams.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said his team lacked rhythm and made too many mistakes, but the Cougars — led by a sparkling performance from Hall — put up quite a few points anyway.

On the other side, Wyoming had moments of brilliance but ended up coming up short.

“I’m thankful for the win,” Sitake said. “We had a lot of mistakes in the came still but I felt like we did enough to win the game. Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl is an amazing coach and he had his guys ready to play. I thought they played tough, physical football. We needed that. It was a good way to get our guys to either respond or fold. The guys are resilient.”

Hall said being able to get into the end zone on that last drive before the break was a big lift for his team.

“Any time you can score going into halftime, especially when you’re down and the other team’s gonna receive the ball coming out of half, it’s big time,” Hall said. “We’ve seen the bad end of that situation so being able to score your points going in, it gives you a lot of momentum. There is more confidence that we can continue to move the ball and take more advantage of our drives. It was big for us.”

The Cowboys showed from the early going that they had come to compete, stopping BYU and pounding the ball down the field to get an early field goal.

But Hall eventually got the Cougar offense going late in the opening quarter, making a pair of pinpoint passes to Hill and to tight end Isaac Rex to put BYU in scoring position. Cougar running back Chris Brooks powered in from six yards out to give the home team the 7-3 lead.

Wyoming came right back, however, with a 10-play TD drive of its own. Aided by a face mask penalty on BYU, the Cowboys surged back down the field until receiver Wyatt Wieland finished it off with a four-yard sweep.

That gave the visitors the edge until the final drives of the half, which allowed the Cougars to be in front going into the third quarter.

It was in that period where BYU really took over, stuffing the Wyoming offense and putting up a pair of touchdowns (one on a three-yard pass from Hall to wide receiver Kody Epps and one on a nine-yard pass from Hall to Hill).

Aided by more BYU penalties, Wyoming answered with a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to stay within striking distance.

But Hall would go deep to Hill midway through the fourth quarter and Hill would carry a defender the final 10 yards to cross the goal line for the 66-yard TD.

“I’ve just been trying to get my weight up in the weight room,” Hill said. “I’ve been really focusing to be able to make the big plays.”

That would be all the Cougars would need, although the Cowboys got one final touchdown and BYU tacked on a field goal in the final minutes.

On the plus side, Hall was brilliant, going 26-of-32 through the air for 337 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.

“Jaren is smart and he has a great football IQ,” Sitake said. “He understands the game. He was smart with the ball and went to the right people. He’s a great player but I know he’s disappointed about some of the things he could’ve have done better. He always wants to improve and he’s looking forward to finding ways to learn. We’re so lucky to have him as a leader on our team.”

On the negative side, BYU was flagged for 11 penalties for 109 yards and repeatedly had issues getting the right players and play calls sent onto the field.

“Obviously we’ve got to find ways to play more disciplined football,” Sitake said. “We had a lot of mistakes and penalties and it didn’t feel like the rhythm was right. As coaches, we’ve got to find ways to get things going a little bit smoother.”

The Cougars now prepare for a short week as they turn around and host Utah State at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Thursday.

“We’ve got to lock in at practice and put aside distractions over the next couple of days,” Hall said. “We’ve got to study film tomorrow and get into it from there. We’ve got to find time to really focus and key in for Thursday.”

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