Halftime thoughts: Iowa State 17, Iowa 10

It was an entertaining half, no? Plenty of stellar stuff, plenty of unusual stuff.

A fake field goal by Iowa from the ISU 22 with one second left on the game clock? Kicker Marshall Koehn has two carries for 27 yards this season, but he's 0-for-2 trying to get what Iowa needed to get touchdowns. The odds were against him both times, but especially today.

But he was sure close.

Still, turning down three points in that spot on that kind of gamble. I'm curious who saw what to make that decision. Most curious.

We have to call him Sam B. Richardson

because the Iowa State quarterback has a teammate named Sam E. Richardson who is a starting cornerback. Both are seniors.

I don't know if any other college football team even has one Sam Richardson.

Anyway, Sam B. had quite a half. He completed 12 of 15 passes for 186 yards and two beautiful touchdown throws. His first-half quarterback rating was a lofty 228.2.

Yowsah!

Iowa's C.J. Beathard

didn't have those kind of numbers passing, but the kind he had rushing were kind of incredible. He had carries of 44 and 57 yards in the final eight minutes of the half, and has 84 rushing yards even though he has been sacked three times.

I've been covering this team for a few years and have never seen anything like it from a Hawkeye quarterback.

Beathard made three fabulous plays on the drive that pulled Iowa into a 10-10 tie before Richardson's 29-yard scoring pass to Jauan Wesley late in the half.

First, Beathard made sure he fell forward onto the 1-yard line instead of taking a sack for a safety when tackled by the Cyclones' Dale Pierson.

Then, on a broken pass play, he had a career-long 44-yard rush from the 1 to the 45. It didn't stay a career-long for long.

Then, he threw a terrific 14-yard touchdown pass to Tevaun Smith.

The 57-yard run came on Iowa's last drive of the half. But there were no more heroics on that possession.

To those of you who thought

Iowa State should have gone for the first down when it had 4th-and-less-than-1 at the Iowa 49 … I strongly agree.

Many of you said so before Iowa then went on a 93-yard drive to tie the game at 10 with 4:24 left. I did, too.

The Cyclones had all of the momentum in the game until a review of a first-down receiver Allen Lazard had apparently stretched for after a catch changed the spot for a fourth down.

It's sooooo easy to make those calls from where we sit, of course. Colin Downing had a fine punt — the first half was a punters' showcase — and Iowa started at its 7. But 93 yards later, it was 10-10.

Iowa State had back-to-back quarterback sacks

late in the first quarter. The Cyclones have nine sacks in their first six quarters of the season. They had 14 all of last year.

ISU's Trever Ryan had 10 and 11 yards in his first two carries. Of his career. The sophomore was a four-time state champion as a track sprinter. He joined Northern Iowa's track team out of college, but transferred to Iowa State and walked on to the football team. Last week he returned a punt 81 yards for a touchdown. Quite a story.

Oh, Ryan also had a 53-yard reception three plays before Richardson hit Wesley to put the Cyclones ahead once again. Yes, it was Ryan's first career catch.

Stalwart Iowa defensive end Drew Ott

suffered a wrist injury that knocked him out of the game. Iowa State nose guard Demond Tucker, who got one of those sacks, left the game with an ankle injury.

It's been noted a time or two before, but football is a brutal game.

Much is made of the dislike

, even hate, between Iowa and Iowa State fans.

Yet, somehow, every year fans of the two teams always seem to be getting along splendidly in the parking lots of the stadium where their teams are meeting.

Now I know someone will immediately email me after reading this to tell me how wrong I was, how fans of the other team were rude and mean to them. When you have 61,500 ticket-buyers plus several thousand other fans here just for the tailgating and beer is flowing, there will be louts.

But 99.93 percent of what I saw today was cardinal-and-gold living together in perfect harmony. It almost makes a person wonder if all the message board and social media 'hate' is just a lot of hot gas that escapes into the atmosphere once people have, you know, actual contact with each other.

Donald Trump was here today

, at least before the game. You may have heard that.

Jeremy Diamond of CNN stood with Scott Dochterman and I outside the Jack Trice Suites, waiting for Trump to emerge from meeting with people who surely have more money than you and I will ever see.

Meanwhile, fans of both color schemes wandered by the door to the suites oblivious to the fact one of the world's most-famous people was about to briefly join the hoi polloi on a golf cart.

I asked one of Trump's security people what it was like to work for Trump. He was bald, built, and not in the mood for chitchat.

'I can't talk about that, sir,' he said. But he did add 'I've worked for Mr. Trump for a long time.'

I assume the job pays well.

Anyway, Trump came out and Diamond asked him something I couldn't hear. All Trump wanted to do was tell him how all the tickets in a 20,000-seat arena in Dallas have been snapped up for Trump's appearance there Monday.

Then he took off, leaving the rest of us to concern ourselves with a football game.