Iowa State football finds sliver of hope in lopsided loss to Oklahoma

For a quarter and a half, Iowa State’s offense kept up with No. 14 Oklahoma on Saturday in Norman.

But the defense simply couldn’t get a stop.

The Sooners (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) scored 29 unanswered points and didn’t punt until midway through the third quarter en route to a 50-20 trouncing of the Cyclones (2-3, 1-1).

That left ISU football coach Matt Campbell looking for a silver lining — and he found a sliver of one in a once-dormant offense that popped with explosive plays early before petering out late.

“I think we grew tonight in a lot of ways,” Campbell said on the Cyclone Radio Network after the game. “And then, obviously your fundamental(s) and details against a team like this that has elite talent, and they’ve got human erasers, and they’ve got a senior quarterback that’s playing really well within their system, and they’ve got great playmakers — and we’ve played great defense against those people, but you’ve gotta have great precision and detail, and the frustrating part tonight is we didn’t have the great precision and detail that it took for us to go and compete and win the football game.”

Once again, the areas Campbell stresses to his players as vital to success emerged as causes for concern. ISU quarterback Rocco Becht saw an errant pass turn into an interception for a touchdown on the opening drive of the game and punter Tyler Perkins had a punt blocked for a safety.

But the offense revived after spotting the Sooners seven points — and that’s where the Cyclones made the most growth, as Campbell noted.

Becht found wide receiver Jaylin Noel for a 51-yard touchdown pass on ISU’s second offensive possession and later connected with receiver Jayden Higgins for the Cyclones’ longest play from scrimmage this season — a 67-yard scoring strike that made the score 21-17 early in the second quarter.

Kicker Chase Contreraz then made his second field goal and ISU trailed by just one, at 21-20.

But the defense continued to flounder, allowing Oklahoma to score touchdowns on five of its first seven drives. So there’s a lot to clean up on that usually stable and sturdy side of the ball.

“We just (didn’t) end up in the right spots at times,” said senior cornerback T.J. Tampa, who led his team with six solo tackles and two pass breakups. “So we’ve just got to prepare better.”

Becht completed 15 of 33 passes for 188 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Oklahoma dialed up pressure via the blitz all night and in the first half, ISU took advantage of the relatively light box by rushing for 121 yards on 16 carries (7.6 average).

The large halftime deficit forced the Cyclones to be one-dimensional after the break, though, and the Sooners were content to abandon their quick-strike offensive approach and bleed clock while still carving up ISU’s wobbly defense.

“Just a lot of Iowa State being Iowa State errors that we need to fix going into next week,” senior offensive lineman Jarrod Hufford said.

The Cyclones will try to get back on track in next Saturday’s Jack Trice Legacy Game against TCU (3-2, 1-1). The game kicks off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox or FS2, depending on the viewer’s location.

“For this entire team and our coaches, it’s continuing to be a (situation) of, ‘Hey, if we’re gonna play great football here, our precision’s gotta be at its best,” Campbell said.

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com