LARAMIE, Wyo. — An inspired defensive performance on Saturday afternoon gave Idaho a chance, but too many miscues stalled the Vandals in a 21-16 loss to the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday before 28,814 at War Memorial Stadium.

The Vandals (1-2) outgained the Cowboys (3-0) 303-287 on the day.

An offensive pass interference call on Cutrell Haywood wiped out an 18-yard touchdown pass from Mason Petrino to Haywood that would have given Idaho the lead with 4 minutes left.

On the previous drive, Petrino and Haywood nearly connected on a 7-yard TD pass, but it was ruled Haywood didn’t hang onto the ball long enough before it slipped out of his hands.

“It’s just hard,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “I felt our guys played their hearts out. Number one, you just can’t commit those penalties and you have to make up for things that happen in a game. I’m sure I haven’t seen two touchdowns at the end of the game that didn’t count but we just need to keep working and playing hard.”

Idaho held Wyoming to a pair of long field goal attempts that went wide on its opening two drives. Idaho was able to capitalize on its opening possessions, with Cade Coffey (Lakeland High) draining a 26-yard field goal on the first and Roshaun Johnson rushing in from 15 yards out to give the Vandals a 10-0 advantage early in the second.

Wyoming got on the board midway through the second quarter on a 12-yard run. The Cowboys picked up another touchdown less than three minutes later, and eventually took a 14-10 lead into the break.

The Vandals got within one late in the third on another Coffey field goal, this one from 34 yards out.

After trading punts, Wyoming got the breakout it needed with an 80-yard touchdown run from Trey Smith, a grad transfer from Louisville, with under 11 minutes to play to make it 21-13.

On his long score, Smith bounced off linebacker Christian Elliss at the line, shook a would-be ankle tackler a few yards farther downfield, regained his balance, then won a footrace down the right sideline.

Elliss, the Vandals’ second-leading tackler with nine, including one for loss, pinned the defeat on himself for not stopping Smith at the line of scrimmage on the decisive score.

“I got my hands on him, but sadly the tight end kind of cracked me a little bit, and if I would have just blown faster, it would have been a 2-yard gain,” Elliss said. “I’m gonna make it up to my team. I’m gonna make it up next week and for the rest of the season.”

After the offensive pass interference call on Idaho, a sack forced the Vandals to punt and Wyoming ran out the clock to steal the win.

Mason Petrino was 15 of 33 passing for 184 yards but was sacked four times. Johnson led the Vandals with 69 yards on the ground. Jeff Cotton was the leading receiver again for Idaho with 91 yards on six catches.

The Vandals picked up 67 yards on the ground on their first two drives, but only 7 yards on their next eight possessions, finishing with 93.

“The offense needs to get touchdowns,” Paul Petrino said. We got the ball in the red zone three times and came away with field goals. You can’t settle for three points, you need to score touchdowns. There will be a lot of good things that we will see on the film that we will like, but there’s things we need to improve on.”

The Vandals held the Cowboys to just 287 yards of total offense, including just 50 yards in the air. Tre Walker led the way with 13 tackles.

Wyoming 21, Idaho 16

Idaho 3 7 3 3 — 16

Wyoming 0 14 0 7 — 21

First Quarter

IDA—FG Coffey 26, 5:55

Second Quarter

IDA—R.Johnson 15 run (Coffey kick), 12:00

WYO—Ismail 12 run (Rothe kick), 7:28

WYO—T.Smith 10 run (Rothe kick), 4:57

Third Quarter

IDA—FG Coffey 34, 4:10

Fourth Quarter

WYO—T.Smith 80 run (Rothe kick), 10:16

IDA—FG Coffey 24, 7:20

A—28,814.

IDA WYO

First downs 21 17

Rushes-yards 40-93 47-237

Passing 210 50

Comp-Att-Int 16-34-0 4-12-0

Return Yards 14 49

Punts-Avg. 8-34.12 6-42.83

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 7-76 7-97

Time of Possession 32:33 27:27

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Idaho, R.Johnson 15-69, Romano 3-29, Cotton 1-17, Carter 8-16, (Team) 1-(minus 6), Petrino 12-(minus 32). Wyoming, T.Smith 17-152, Swen 14-52, Chambers 11-26, Ismail 2-13, (Team) 3-(minus 6).

PASSING—Idaho, D.Lee 1-1-0-26, Petrino 15-33-0-184. Wyoming, Chambers 4-12-0-50.

RECEIVING—Idaho, Cotton 6-91, Haywood 4-35, Whitney 2-32, Carter 2-22, Ha.Hatten 1-26, Romano 1-4. Wyoming, Marcotte 1-23, Swen 1-22, Okwoli 1-6, Crow 1-(minus 1).

MISSED FIELD GOALS—Wyoming, Rothe 46, Rothe 49.