Iowa State benches QB Brock Purdy in loss to Iowa

AMES — Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy played one of the worst games of his storied career, statistically.

He completed just 13 of his 27 passes for 138 yards Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium. While that’s not good, he topped it off with three interceptions in No. 9 Iowa State's 27-17 loss to No. 10 Iowa.

He was replaced by redshirt freshman Hunter Dekkers in the fourth quarter.

“Were some of those balls tipped? Should they have been caught? Was there a different area the ball should’ve gone in the progression?” Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell said. “I’ll have a better answer once I watch the tape. My thought in the fourth quarter was to get Hunter into the football games and let Brock kind of gather himself.”

Dekkers played well, completing 11 of his 16 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown to Tarique Milton

“From the perspective of, did we put Hunter Dekkers in to challenge Brock’s position on our football team? Absolutely not,” Campbell said. “What we put Hunter in to do was to let Brock gather himself and then for Hunter to settle the game back down and really to try and win the football game. Even at that time in the fourth quarter, we felt like we could win the game and had opportunities to do that.

“We believe in Brock and he’s a tremendous leader in our program. He certainly doesn’t want the end result of what happened today. He’s a guy that’s worked really, really hard and if I know Brock Purdy, he’ll bounce back better than ever.”

Corny cliche

Campbell isn’t one to shy away from a football cliche but there’s one he does not subscribe to: Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way.

The cliche seems fair on the surface. Footballs are oddly shaped and sometimes they literally don’t bounce your way. Campbell doesn’t buy it.

“I think that’s total BS,” Campbell said. “I always have and I always will believe that you make the ball bounce your way and unfortunately for whatever reason we’re lacking at that right now. It’s not that we don’t have good players. And it’s not that we don’t have quality coaches. But some things, we’re a hair off.

“I felt we were a hair off in the first half. I really felt confident that we were in a great spot coming out in the second half. We put together a decent drive, get it out to midfield and then boom, the tide swings. We just never had the ability to recover. Again, I think luck is total BS. I think you create your luck and you either demand it, or you’re hoping and wishing, and this is not a sport to hope and wish. This is a sport to demand it to happen.”

Iowa State injury report

Middle linebacker O’Rien Vance was out against Iowa after suffering an injury last week against Northern Iowa.

His replacement, Gerry Vaughn filled in well.

“Obviously we believe so much in O’Rien and he played such a great game for us last week,” Campbell said. “But I don’t know if I could be prouder of Gerry Vaughn. What a game he had.”

Vaughn finished with two tackles but the defense he was a part of let up just 173 Iowa yards.

“I’ve said this a lot in the college football world, man, you don’t know when your shot’s (coming), but when you get your shot, do you take advantage of it?” Campbell said. “And I thought Gerry did an incredible job. I think O’Rien’s really day to day at this point. He was running a little bit yesterday. Just not ready to play.

“But we’ll certainly really look forward to having him back and I feel like we can be an even better defense now that Gerry’s got some good experience under his belt, as well.”

Tight end Charlie Kolar returned after he missed the first game. He caught four passes for 34 yards.