LARAMIE, Wyo. -- Wyoming left the Cavaliers gasping Saturday, and it wasn't from the altitude.

On a gorgeous afternoon in Big Sky country, the Cowboys handed Virginia a 23-3 beating that was much worse than the final score indicated.

UVa coach Al Groh was so unimpressed with the performance of sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell that he inserted freshman Peter Lalich for the Cavaliers' final offensive series, taking away Lalich's chances of a redshirt year.

Groh might have decided that desperate times require desperate measures, considering the Cavaliers managed only 110 yards in total offense, their lowest output since they had 90 yards in a 1980 loss at Maryland.

In the final game last season, the Cavaliers had 112 yards at Virginia Tech -- meaning their worst two offensive games in the past 27 years have come in consecutive games.

"That certainly was a lot less than expected," Groh said after the Cavaliers' 10th loss in their past 11 road games.

Last season against Wyoming, Virginia also failed to score a touchdown against in regulation, although the Cavaliers prevailed 13-12 when the Cowboys missed an extra point in overtime.

This was a much better Wyoming team offensively, owing mostly to the play of sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween, who completed 25 of 34 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown.

The game's other sophomore lefty, Sewell, came up well short of his Cowboys' counterpart, repeatedly overthrowing his receivers en route to 87 yards and two interceptions on 11-of-23 passing.

Sewell's most glaring mistake came early in the third quarter, after the second of three Billy Vinnedge field goals put the Cowboys ahead 13-3.

Andrew Pearman's 67-yard kickoff return gave the Cavaliers possession at the Wyoming 29-yard line, but Sewell's pass on second-and-10 fluttered well over the head of tight end Jon Stupar and into the arms of 'Pokes cornerback Julius Stinson.

"We were going to get points of some nature," Groh said, "but the ball just slipped out of [Sewell's] hand."

Sewell's day ended after Stinson's second interception with 5:10 left, but Virginia's victory hopes ended about a minute earlier when Devin Moore ran 49 yards for a touchdown and a 20-3 lead.

Virginia had been able to hang around thanks mainly to senior Ryan Weigand, who punted 10 times for a 51.4-yard average. Weigand's 514 punting yards broke the school record of 449 yards held by Russ Henderson since 1977.

That 1977 team also was the worst Virginia team offensively until last year's Cavaliers averaged 257.2 yards in Mike Groh's first season as offensive coordinator.

It was hard Saturday to evaluate the play calling of the head coach's son, because Sewell was so off-target.

"It was just terrible," Sewell said. "It wasn't what I had been showing during practice or during camp."

The Cavaliers had one first down on each of their first two offensive series -- including a 10-yard run by Sewell on their first play -- and then failed to get a first down on eight of their next nine drives.

Wyoming ran 88 offensive plays, compared to the Cavaliers' 46.

"That's a tremendous disparity right there," Groh said. "We had some guys open in the first half. We had some seam routes [to the tight ends] that were open and we couldn't get it to them."

The Cowboys ran a no-huddle offense that might have enabled them to take advantage of their home stadium, which is located at 7,220 feet. But Virginia's defense was on the field for so long that it would have been gassed at any altitude.

"We just outplayed them in every aspect of the game," said coach Joe Glenn, whose 'Pokes entered the game as 3¹₂-point underdogs.

The Cowboys had 471 yards against a Virginia team that returned 10 starters from a defense that ranked 17th nationally in total defense last season. Moore had 18 carries for a game-high 125 yards and Wyoming rushed for 218 yards as a team.

That compared to 7 rushing yards for Virginia, a low for the Cavaliers since a 2003 loss to Florida State in which they had minus-5 rushing yards.

"We didn't get anything going, either to create field position or give our defense a rest," said Groh, who might have thought the Cavaliers could punish opposing defenses with an offensive line that returned all five starters.

The obvious question going into next week's home opener against Duke is whether Sewell or Lalich will play quarterback.

"How did I know that somebody was going to ask that?" Groh said. "We'll see how things go."

Score at least 20 points -- F: The Cavaliers failed to score a touchdown for the third time in five games going back to last season and had 110 yards in total offense, their low since 1980.

No TDs for Wyoming's Defense/Special Teams -- B: The Cowboys' Hoost Marsh had five punt returns for 61 yards but that mostly resulted from UVa's Ryan Weigand outkicking his coverage. Wyoming's final field goal was the Cowboys' only score that resulted from a turnover.

Match Wyoming's kicking game: B-- Weigand had one of the best punting days in UVa history -- at altitude -- and Chris Gould converted his only field-goal attempt. The Cowboys' Billy Vinnedge was 3-for-4 on field goals and averaged 49.7 yards on three punts.