Late play gives Chambers confidence

“When you’re taking (Chambers) out, that’s a message to everybody that they’d better get their butts in gear,” Bohl said Monday.

The Cowboys were trailing Tulsa 17-7 when Bohl turned to redshirt sophomore Tyler Vander Waal late in the third quarter. They had entered the game averaging 81.7 passing yards per game, which ranked 128th out of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

Chambers, a redshirt freshman, had completed just 5 of 16 passes for 69 yards when Bohl benched him.

Vander Waal went 1 for 6 for 21 yards, and Bohl put Chambers back behind center. Chambers didn’t light the world on fire, but he made throws and his receivers made plays that gave the Cowboys (3-1) confidence heading into Saturday night’s Mountain West opener against UNLV (1-2).

“I took a step back, took a deep breath and tried to think about what we could do better,” said Chambers, who went 4 for 9 for 124 yards and a touchdown after returning to the field. “I saw a lot of different stuff, and that helped later in the game.

“There were some keys that I was able to go back in and implement. It was very nice to go back in and play well. Even though we lost the game, I got some confidence and inspiration for this week.”

Chambers’ first three passes after being benched were incompletions, but his fourth was a thing of beauty.

Facing second-and-10 at the UW 47-yard line, Chambers rolled to his right and threw back into the middle of the field, where he hit junior wide receiver Ayden Eberhardt in stride for a 53-yard touchdown that cut Tulsa’s lead to 17-14 with 11 minutes, 3 seconds remaining.

Chambers completed two passes for 37 yards on UW’s next drive. The first completion was a ball senior receiver Raghib Ismail Jr. jumped up and caught with two defenders behind him and another flashing in front of him trying to break up Chambers’ pass.

Chambers followed that with a 15-yard strike to senior John Okwoli before rushing in from 15 yards out to put the Cowboys ahead 21-17.

On UW’s last drive, Chambers connected with junior Dontae Crow for a 34-yard gain to the Tulsa 10. UW’s hopes were dashed three plays later when Chambers scrambled to his right and fumbled on the 3-yard line while trying to plunge into the end zone.

Bohl and his coaching staff have made a point to not pin the blame for UW’s passing woes entirely on Chambers. Similarly, they haven’t given him all the credit for the success the Cowboys had in the passing game late.

“We caught some balls during that stretch that we didn’t catch earlier in the game,” offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brent Vigen said. “It was a little bit of (Chambers) trying to make the most of his next opportunity and receivers catching passes.

“We have a competitive group that was going to do whatever it could to win. That’s not to say they weren’t earlier, but we made some plays, put some scores up and built some confidence.”

Bohl has been quick to remind critics Chambers essentially played two-and-a-half games before being lost for the rest of the 2018 season with a broken right leg. There are going to be growing pains as the Kermin, California, product continues to learn.

Chambers may have turned a corner with Saturday’s effort, Vigen said.

“There’s no greater developer than experience,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad experience. The more situations you’ve gone through, the more plays you’ve had to make, the more you grow as a player.

“At the end of the day, this could be something we look back on and say, ‘Sean Chambers really grew up that day.’”