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OGDEN — Coming off a dominant 39-0 win against Northwestern State, Weber State welcomed in a new challenge on Saturday, the McNeese Cowboys.
The Cowboys, who came into the game 3-2, have shown offensive firepower behind their dual-threat quarterback Clifton McDowell.
McDowell rushed for 109 yards while throwing for 203 to boost the Cowboys over the Wildcats 28-26 in Ogden.
Junior running back Damon Bankston came up big for the Wildcats, rushing for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.
The focal point of the Wildcats loss? Dropped passes.
With 1:23 left in the game, Richie Munoz had a wide-open Jayleen Record — who like most of his team on Saturday night — dropped the ball on a what would be a walk-in and go-ahead touchdown, but left the Wildcats with a fourth-and-12 on the 42-yard line.
The ensuing play, Munoz fired a shot to Noah Kjar, who was hit hard and a flag was thrown for targeting. The initial call on the field was targeting, but was reversed after replay review, and McNeese forced a turnover on downs, ending the game.
Man. Some crazy stuff in Ogden.
— Nathan Dunn (@NateDunnKSL) September 29, 2024
Record drops the would be walk-in touchdown, the next play Noah Kjar was hit hard and the refs originally called targeting, but it was reversed and resulted in a TOD.
McNeese will escape with a win 28-26.
It was the seventh dropped ball of the night, and a costly one as the Wildcats never got the ball back.
"Everything matters. If you have a play to make make a play," Weber State head coach Mickey Mental said after the loss. "Obviously, we had the drop, but there are other moments we have to be better. Those things in a tight ball game don't show up, but credit to McNeese; they are a well-coached team."
To start the game, McNeese drove down the field with ease, scoring on just six plays, capped off by a 25-yard rushing touchdown by Joshon Barbie.
After a defensive showdown for most of the first half, Weber State finally put together a solid drive, but it stalled on fourth-and-short on the 10-yard line. Mental elected to attempt a field goal on fourth-and-inches despite the disgruntlement of his quarterback Munoz.
The 27-yard attempt was no good, and Weber State remained behind 7-0.
With just over a minute left in the first half, McDowell found an open lane and took off, but was hit from behind and fumbled. The Wildcats recovered on the 48-yard line, giving them another opportunity to get points on the board before the half.
The Wildcats took advantage of the turnover on the back of Bankston, who rushed for 40 yards on the drive, capped off by a 10-yard pass to Marcus Chretien. Weber State tried to catch the Cowboys off guard with a fake PAT, but was unsuccessful and went into the second half trailing 7-6.
TOUCHDOWN WILDCATS!
— Weber State Football 🏈 (@weberstatefb) September 29, 2024
Munoz to Marcus Chretien for a 10-yard TD!
McNeese leads 7-6 at halftime pic.twitter.com/fc2wt3m2dm
Mental said after the game that it was a designed fake and they had seen something on film, the play was just not executed properly.
Though the offense was not preforming well like it did last week when it scored 39 points, there weren't many favors given to Munoz by dropping five of his passes in the first half. Munoz finished the half 11-of-21 passing with 56 yards
Weber State took their opening drive of the second half to the house, thanks in part to a 44-yard Bankston run that was finished off by a 5-yard touchdown pass from Munoz to Dahlyn Jones.
McNeese wouldn't go away, though, with McDowell connecting with Jonathan Harris on a 59-yard reception to put them in the red zone. McDowell then ran it in from 1-yard out to finish off a five-play, 75-yard drive to put the Cowboys back in the lead 14-13 with nine minutes to go in the third quarter.
Bankston continued his solid day, taking a 9-yard run to the end zone after he was initially stopped up the middle. Bankston bounced to the left and solidified a 100-yard rushing game.
Barbie responded with a touchdown of his own on the ensuing drive, changing the lead again in favor of McNeese 21-20 at the end of the third quarter.
After forcing a Wildcat punt, the Cowboys drove down the field again thanks to a prominent rushing attack. Barbie secured his third rushing touchdown of the game after taking it in from nine yards out, pushing the lead to 28-20 with 10:33 to go.
Jacob Sharp, who had four drops in the first half, avenged his rough day by hauling in a 49 yard reception from Munoz to set up a Bankston rushing touchdown.
The Wildcats elected to go for the two-point conversion, concocting a version of the "Philly Special," but Sharp elected to try and take the ball in himself instead of passing to the wide-open Munoz and was unsuccessful, cutting into the lead 28-26 in favor of McNeese.
"It's on me at the end of the day. He threw it every time in practice. I just got to do a better job of coaching, it is never on an 18-21 year old kid, its on the coach," Mental said on Sharp's decision to take the ball in himself.
Weber State got the ball back and it was the aforementioned dropped pass that led to the Cowboys win.
Despite the loss, there were plenty of positives for the Wildcats. Weber State rushed for nearly 300 yards on the Cowboys and had no turnovers in the effort. Freshman tailback Davion Godley potentially solidified his name at the No. 2 running back spot taking 10 carries for 75 yards.
Weber State will head to Missoula to take on 4-1 Montana on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. MDT while the Cowboys will take on Houston Christian.
