Iowa State football seeks to stop ‘slippage’ as it prepares to face TCU on the road

AMES — Rocco Becht’s a straight shooter. Highly accountable. Disdainful of excuses even when they exist.

But Iowa State’s third-year starting quarterback’s rarely rendered speechless, yet found few words to describe the offense’s ongoing travails after Saturday’s 24-19 home Big 12 football loss to Arizona State.

Disappointed was one. Upset was the other. And when asked how he’d assess his own play after the Cyclones (5-4, 2-4) lost their fourth straight game largely because of their own glaring mistakes, Becht said this:

“Not good enough.”

Becht is the face of ISU’s program because his care ripples outward — from team, to university to central Iowa writ large. He’s led the Cyclones on seven game-winning drives in the fourth quarter in his career, but is clearly struggling now. Becht’s thrown at least one interception in five of the past six games, and was picked off a career-high three times in an otherwise strong performance in the 41-27 loss to BYU.

His touchdown-to-interception ratio has dipped to 11-to-7 and when he’s not missing his receivers, it seems like every on-target throw is dropped by his receivers.

In short, nothing’s going right — and not just with Becht and the offense — but ISU must pick itself back up again and try to get well in advance of a tough test on Saturday at TCU (6-2, 3-2).

“We still feel like there’s a ton to play for here,” said linebacker Kooper Ebel, who leads the Cyclones in sack yardage with 12. “We’re all best friends. We all love each other a lot and, man, that’s enough for us. We want to play for that guy next to us, so there’s a lot to play for here.”

ISU likely will be a decided underdog against the Horned Frogs, who have scored 35 or more points in five games this season and feature one of the Big 12’s top quarterbacks in Josh Hoover. He ranks second in the league in passing yards (2,371) and boasts a 22-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio. TCU’s won two games in a row, so is trending in the opposite direction of the Cyclones, who simply hope that continuing to work hard toward improving play in all three phases of the game will finally get them back on a winning track.

That’s all ISU can do — putting actions above words, and turning questions into elusive answers.

“There (are) moments where you’re playing, in all three phases, really good, and there (are) some moments where you’re letting it slip,” head coach Matt Campbell said. “And slippage in those moments (is) prohibiting us from winning football games.”

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