1. Good start: For Wyoming to have any chance it has to play well the entire game (no-brainer statement of the week), but it also can’t get down early. TCU has trucked teams early and often. See Saturday’s paper for more on that. A good start is crucial for the Cowboys.

2. Play keep-away: Somehow, the Cowboys must keep the ball away from TCU’s diverse and high-powered offense. How do they do that against one of the best defenses in the nation? That’s why they pay the coaches handsomely over there. UW likely will have to do a good job of mixing up their looks and plays, and of course, blocking well. No one has been able to do much of this against TCU, but UW must to have any chance.

3. Block party: Hate to state the obvious again, but the offensive line must have its best effort of the season to give quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels some time to throw and to try and establish some sort of run game. Easier said than done, but if Carta-Samuels is scrambling for his life the entire game then UW has no chance.

4. Get defensive: The Cowboys need to make some plays on defense, like forcing turnovers and getting TCU’s offense off the field when it can. Disrupting quarterback Andy Dalton is a good start, even though he has weapons all over the place. But rattle Dalton and things could snowball for the defense.

5. Better to be lucky than good: UW is needs to have some lucky breaks. Whether that be a funny bounce of the ball, a questionable call from the officials or anything like that, teams that are 31-point underdogs need things like that to have a chance at pulling off an upset. Even if UW gets some of those breaks it might not make a bit of difference, but anything helps when you play a team as good as TCU.

See Saturday’s paper for more on the game, and also the latest on UW men’s and women’s basketball. The live blog for the TCU game starts at about 11 a.m. Saturday. Hope to hear from you then, if not sooner. Join the blog at http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2009/11/18/wyoming-vs-tcu-live-blog/