TUCSON, Ariz. _ A series of errors and poor defense on third downs combined to result in Georgia State losing to Wyoming 38-17 in the Arizona Bowl at Arizona Stadium on Tuesday.
Georgia State's errors were numerous: a dropped pass on fourth down, an interception, a shanked punt, a roughing-the-kicker penalty and a missed tackle resulted in the Cowboys building a 21-point lead midway through the third quarter. Wyoming was helped by converting nine of its first 12 third downs.
With the loss, its second in its third bowl game, Georgia State finished 7-6 and missed a chance to set a school record for victories. The defeat was the team's fourth in its past five games, coinciding with quarterback Dan Ellington suffering an ACL injury in the last play of the first half against Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 9.
The defeat marked the end of the college careers of several key seniors, including Ellington, who passed for 156 yards with a touchdown and an interception and rushed for 70 yards with a touchdown, running back Tra Barnett, who finished with 64 yards, offensive tackle Hunter Atkinson and kicker Brandon Wright, who set a school record in the game.
The game was set up as a test between Georgia State's rushing offense, led by Barnett, who surpassed 2,000 yards in his career this season to lead a group that averaged 245.2 yards per game, against Wyoming's rushing defense, which allowed just 99.4 yards per game, sixth-fewest in FBS.
Because it was playing from behind most of the game, Georgia State didn't get a chance to run the ball as frequently as it did during the season. The team finished with 199 rushing yards. Wyoming, led by Xazavian Valladay, who rushed for more than 200, finished with more than 280 rushing yards.
The mistakes started early for the Panthers.
Leading 7-3, and facing fourth-and-1 on its 38, Ellington tried a shovel pass to wide receiver Devin Gentry, who bobbled the ball multiple times until it fell to the turf. Compounding the error, Georgia State was called for an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty after the play. Wyoming took advantage with an 18-yard touchdown pass on third-and-5 from Levi Williams to Austin Conway to take a 10-7 lead.
Georgia State's mistakes continued.
On its next play, Ellington was intercepted by Alijah Halliburton, who returned the poorly thrown pass 23 yards to Georgia State's 11. Three plays later, Williams completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Valladay to increase the Cowboys' lead to 17-7 with 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Georgia State regained its composure to put together an 11-yard scoring drive that ended with a 25-yard field goal by Wright to cut Wyoming's lead to 17-10 with 9:31 remaining in the first half. But the Panthers may have felt like more could have been done after they had a first-and-10 at Wyoming's 11. A 2-yard loss on third-and-5 ended the drive.
The field goal was Wright's 32nd of his career, breaking Wil Lutz's career mark. Wright's 83 points this season also set a school record.
Georgia State caught a break on Wyoming's next drive when Quavian White intercepted a poorly thrown pass by Williams at the 5-yard line. White returned the ball 25 yards to set up Georgia State at its 30 with 3:44 remaining in the half. Williams, making his first start this season, had already flirted with being intercepted a few times.
But the mistakes continue anew.
A shanked punt of 17 yards by Wright set up Wyoming on its 40. The Panthers forced a punt, but Evan Jones was flagged for roughing the kicker to give the Cowboys a fresh set of downs at their 49 with slightly less than a minute remaining in the half. Wyoming took advantage, again on third down, with a 51-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Ayden Eberhardt. The pass was a prayer, thrown by Williams as he was falling out of bounds. Eberhardt caught the ball around the 30-yard line and zigzagged his way through Georgia State's defense to give the Cowboys a 24-10 lead with 32 seconds remaining.
And the second half brought nothing new.
On second-and-11 at its 36, Williams hit Valladay for a 63-yard pass to the 1-yard line. A Georgia State player had a chance to stop Valladay, but whiffed on the tackle. Valladay scored on the next play to give the Cowboys a 31-10 lead with 8:12 remaining in the third.
The Panthers responded with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Ellington to Cornelius McCoy, who dragged tacklers into the end zone to cut their deficit to 31-17 with 7:43 left.
The Cowboys extinguished the short-lived rally when Valladay broke four tackles in a 62-yard run to the 4-yard line with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter. After a face-mask penalty against Georgia State, Williams scored on a 6-yard run to give the Cowboys a 38-17 lead with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter.
The final mistake may have come when Aubry Payne was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line with 6:46 remaining.
