A matchup of two long-time Front Range Rivals, the Wyoming Cowboys and Air Force Falcons, will be featured on Saturday at 8:15 p.m., M.T., from Falcon Stadium in Colorado Spring, Colo.  Wyoming, 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the Mountain West Conference, has won five of its last six games this season.  Air Force, 4-5 overall and 3-2 in the MW, has won three of its last four games.

The Cowboys have defeated Hawai'i, Texas State, Utah State, New Mexico and Colorado State and lost only to Boise State during its six-game stretch.  Air Force defeated UNLV, Nevada and Colorado State in three consecutive games before dropping last week's game versus Army.

This week's Wyoming-Air Force meeting will be the 56th in the series.  That ranks as the sixth longest series against any opponent for the Wyoming Cowboys.  The only longer series for the Cowboys are versus Colorado State (109), Utah (83), BYU (78), New Mexico (69) and Utah State (67).  Air Force has a four-game lead in the overall series with 28 wins.  Wyoming has 24 wins and there have been three ties.  The series began in 1957.  There have been a few breaks in the series, the most recent being in 1978 and '79 when the two teams didn't play, but since 1980 the Cowboys and Falcons have played each other every season.  This year marks the 38^th consecutive season the two teams will play.

Since 2011, Wyoming has won four of the last six games in the series with Air Force.  Since 2013, the Pokes have won three of the last four meetings.  UW has also won two of its last three meetings versus the Falcons in Colorado Springs, but did lose the most recent game at Falcon Stadium in 2015.

The Cowboys recorded their sixth win of the season in the 16-13 victory over Colorado State last Saturday.  That makes the Cowboys bowl eligible for the second straight season.  Last season, UW played in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. 

The last time Wyoming earned bowl eligibility in consecutive seasons was 1998 and '99 when they posted records of 8-3 in '98 and 7-4 in '99.  That was 19 seasons ago.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of bowl bids available to conference teams those years, Wyoming did not receive a bowl invitation either of those two seasons.
It has been since the 1987-88 seasons, 30 years ago, that Wyoming has appeared in bowl games in back-to-back seasons.  UW played in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego in both 1987 and '88.

Air Force is fighting to get bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive season.  With a 4-5 record entering this Saturday's game, the Falcons need to win two of their last three games.  In addition to playing the Cowboys, Air Force will travel to Boise State and host Utah State in its final two games of the season.

This week's game will pit the No. 2 scoring defense in the Mountain West in Wyoming against the No. 1 scoring offense in the league in Air Force.  The Pokes are allowing opponents only 18.6 points per game to rank No. 2 in the conference and 18^th in the nation.  Air Force is the No. 1 scoring team in the Mountain West, averaging 34.0 points per game, which ranks them 30^th in the country.

The Wyoming defense came up with another gem in the Cowboys 16-13 win over Colorado State last Saturday.  It marked the fourth time this season that Wyoming held an opponent under 14 points (13 vs. CSU, 10 vs. Texas State, 3 against New Mexico and 0 vs. Gardner-Webb).  The Cowboy "D" held CSU 20 points under its season scoring average of 33.2 points.  Wyoming limited the Rams to 345 yards of total offense -- 154 yards under their league-leading average of 499.0 yards per game.  Of CSU's nine offensive possessions, UW's defense forced two three-and-out series and held the Ram offense to 18 and 19 yards on two other drives.  The one three-and-out series was on the Rams' final possession of the game.  On Colorado State's three entries into the red zone, UW allowed only one TD, one FG and no points on a third possession.

There have been many clutch performances by the Wyoming offense over the past couple seasons, but perhaps none more memorable than in the Border War victory over Colorado State last week.  Trailing 13-9 with 7:09 remaining in the game, the Cowboy offense began its drive at its own 31-yard line.  Junior quarterback Josh Allen hit fullback Drew Van Maanen on a first down pass, with Van Maanen making a spectacular diving catch for 17 yards.  On second down from the 48, redshirt sophomore running back Kellen Overstreet broke through for a 16-yard run.  A face-mask penalty against CSU at the end of the play moved the ball to the CSU 21.  Overstreet carried for 4 and 3 yards on the next two plays, followed by back-to-back carries by Allen for 5 and 6 yards down to the 3-yard line.  Overstreet would get the final carry of the drive and took the ball into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown to conclude a 7-play, 69-yard, game-winning drive.

This Saturday's Wyoming-Air Force game will be broadcast on radio over the 26 affiliate stations of the Cowboy Sports Network, beginning with the pregame show at 7 p.m., M.T.  The game will also be televised live on ESPNU.

Next week, Wyoming will return home to host Fresno State on Saturday, Nov. 18 in the final regular-season home game for the Cowboys.  That game will kick off at Noon, M.T., and will be Senior Day for the Cowboys.