Wyoming’s Andrew Peasley completed just seven passes Saturday, and that’s not counting the two he threw into the hands of UH safety Peter Manuma.

The one pass Peasley needed to complete in the Cowboys’ 27-20 win over the Warriors at the Ching Complex, he did.

It was with time running down in the fourth quarter, third-and-15, ball on the Hawaii 29. Peasley drilled a bullet to Joshua Cobbs at the 4.

On the next play, Peasley rolled out and cruised into the end zone. Wyoming led 27-13 with 4:12 left. Hawaii might have had time to score one touchdown. But two? Very unlikely.

It was the dagger. The turning point came much earlier, when Wyoming realized it didn’t need to throw the ball to win.

The Cowboys went three-and-out their first series, throwing two passes each time before punting.

As UH built a 10-0 lead, Wyoming continued to mix in passes, but not very successfully.

The Cowboys eventually went to their strength, the running game — which matches up with UH’s weakness, stopping the run.

Even with its star back, Titus Swen, carrying just five times for 14 yards, Wyoming ran wild, with 365 yards. Da’Qualen “DQ” James did the most damage, with 179 yards. Dawaiian McNeely got 61 of his 81 on one play, the touchdown that put Wyoming ahead. And Peasley himself was a load, netting 71 yards and two touchdowns.

Hawaii coach Timmy Chang acknowledged that a lack of defensive depth is hurting the Warriors late in games.

“Definitely, we see the same guys in there, playing with the number of guys (available), there’s some issues for sure,” he said.

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One formula for success on defense is to have 11 superstars who never get tired. A more common one is having competent role players who can come off the bench at various points of the game, so that the starters can get some breaks and still be at their best at the end of a close game.

Even in this age of seemingly overnight roster rebuilds, it takes time to build that kind of depth.

The long Wyoming runs were caused at least partly by missed assignments, but sometimes missed assignments are caused by fatigue.

As for UH’s offense, quarterback Brayden Schager was brilliant at times, but not often enough. He went on a cold streak in the middle of the game where he completed one of eight passes; many of them were wild high. Chang said it might have had to do with the rain.

It’s easy to forget that Schager is still a very young player who is still learning. He engineered a first-quarter drive where he converted on two third downs and a fourth down; the 22-yard screen pass to Dedrick Parson for the touchdown was a thing of beauty.

So were two deep balls he threw to Zion Bowens; unfortunately for UH they didn’t result in completions because of good plays by Wyoming DBs.

Tylan Hines was showcased, rushing for 103 yards on 11 carries.

He displayed some toughness with a strong run between the tackles late in the first quarter, as it appeared the Warriors were headed for another score. But the usual dependable Matthew Shipley’s field goal try hit an upright instead of going through them.

The Warriors kept the momentum, though, and Manuma’s first interception gave them the ball at the Wyoming 30 early in the second quarter.

This drive included some exotic play-calling — it started with an option pass by receiver Dior Scott that fortunately fell to the ground and not into a Cowboy’s hands after he scrambled around for several seconds.

Four plays later, at the Wyoming 11, Schager tossed a backward (what we used to inaccurately call lateral) pass to lineman Ilm Manning. Manning made it back to the line of scrimmage.

Two trick plays, zero yards.

This time Shipley did make the field goal, from 29 yards; but it really did feel like it would haunt the Warriors later that they didn’t come away from that with a touchdown.

A few minutes later, Manuma got his second interception.

“Us safeties, we take those gifts and make them pay for it,” the freshman said.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, the Cowboys paid just three points, total. UH went three-and-out after the second gift.

“(Teammates) were telling me good job. But my game wasn’t really good because we didn’t win,” Manuma said. “I’m going to keep being there for my teammates and we’re just going to continue to play and get better.”