LARAMIE — Jay Sawvel had a list ready to go when he reached the podium Monday afternoon.

The third-year University of Wyoming head coach pointed to five key focal points as the Cowboys (3-3 overall, 2-1 Mountain West) turn the page to the second half of the season. UW is coming off a 16-13 overtime win at San Jose State, which snapped an eight-game road losing streak dating back to last season.

UW returns home for a matchup with MW newcomer Northern Illinois (0-5, 0-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.

Sawvel’s list of necessary improvements included:

Turnover margin: The Cowboys are 132nd nationally with an average of minus-1.17 turnovers per game. “Our turnover margin is minus-7 right now,” Sawvel said. “Regardless of what the whole season accumulative is, starting this week, these next six games, we need to be positive. We need to work to try to be positive-6. We need to try to be plus-1 each game.”Outgain opponents: The Cowboys are 129th in the country in total offense at 301.8 yards per game. The defense is 82nd at 362.2 yards allowed. “A couple times early in the season, we had an issue with explosive plays defensively,” Sawvel said. “The other night, San Jose had two plays that were 25 yards or more. When you are at two (of those plays) or less, you’re going to give up about 10-14 points a game. When you’re at three or more, you’re going to give up mid-to-upper 20s. So, cutting those back is one thing. Offensively, it’s going to be (about creating more).”Third-down conversions: UW’s offense is tied for 123rd nationally with a third-down conversion rate of 31%. The Cowboys’ defense is 87th at 39.2%. “That has to flip,” Sawvel said. “If that flips, it gives us more opportunities to have the ball and create more explosive plays and it gives the other team less opportunities with the ball to create explosive plays.”Penalties: The Cowboys are fifth in the Mountain West in penalty yardage at 51.2 per game. “We have the fewest penalties of the teams that have played six games. So, penalties have not been a problem,” Sawvel said. “We’re averaging 51 yards of penalty yardage a game. I want to get that under 40.”Red-zone offense: UW is tied for 116th nationally with a success rate of 76.2% in the red zone. Of the Cowboys’ 21 opportunities inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, they have settled for seven field goals. “Our red-zone touchdown percentage, we’re 9-fo-21 (43%),” Sawvel said. “… I want that red-zone touchdown percentage to be 75%.”

“In order to be where we want to be at the end of the year, these five things here will determinate that,” Sawvel added.

UW goes into Week 7 tied for 135th in the country in scoring offense at 14.5 points per game. NIU is the worst offensive team in the country with an average of 12.4 points.

Overlooking an opponent is not a position the Cowboys are in, Sawvel said.

“We’ve done nothing around here,” he added. “We haven’t won a championship in 30 years. We haven’t had a 10-win season in 30 years. We won a game Friday night that we should have won by 14 points and we had to go to overtime to win. We have to get better. So, there’s not going to be ‘too much’ or ‘too little.’ Nothing.

“There’s nothing that’s going to be said about Northern Illinois and what their record is or isn’t. They’ve played some good people.”

The Cowboys haven’t won back-to-back games since beating Akron and Northern Iowa to open the 2025 season. That won’t be a point of discussion this week, either.

“All we’ve talked about and all we will talk about is just this one game, this one week and this one practice. That’s really all that it got back to,” Sawvel said. “We had enough players that were disappointed in their performance at North Dakota State.”

Sawvel admitted UW’s 28-0 road loss to North Dakota State left a bad taste in the locker room. Their mindset shifted against San Jose State, and he’s hoping that mentality stays the same this weekend.

“One of the things we talked about was that maybe we made too much of the opponent when we played North Dakota State,” Sawvel said. “We really just (need to) talk about us. That’s what we really want to talk about.

“We just need to get better. We have so many things that we’ve got to get better at, so that’s where we’re at.”

Alex Taylor is the assistant editor for WyoSports and covers University of Wyoming athletics. He can be reached at ataylor@wyosports.net. Follow him on X at @alex_m_taylor22.