No. 3 TCU puts away Iowa State, 45-21

AMES - Iowa State put together a blue print worthy of beating a top-five opponent with its first-quarter plan and ran it to near perfection.

What happened beyond the first quarter left the Cyclones scratching their heads.

'I think there's a lot of things you could say it was,” said Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads. 'For me to pinpoint and be accurate without studying would not be fair. (TCU) certainly made good adjustments. They certainly made plays.”

Iowa State scored three touchdowns in the opening half, but No. 3 TCU kept pace and pulled away in the second half to a 45-21 win Saturday in Jack Trice Stadium.

The Cyclones (2-4, 1-2) gained 262 yards of offense in the first quarter, but just 199 in the final three - including 112 in the second and third quarters combined. Against the run, the Horned Frogs (7-0, 4-0) defense held Iowa State to 132 yards.

'They knew on first and second down we were trying to establish the run game and get in there early so we started blitzing those kind of packages pretty quickly in the second half,” said quarterback Sam Richardson.

Richardson was 22-for-36 for 251 yards while the lone touchdown toss came via sophomore Joel Lanning. Lanning - who only played two snaps - hit receiver Allen Lazard on the left sideline for a 74-yard touchdown run.

Lazard shook off a would-be tackler and broke free to put to tie the game 14-14. Mike Warren, who gained 87 yards on 22 carries, scored just more than four minutes later on a four-yard run to give Iowa State its final lead, 21-14.

'I just liked his leverage on the guy,” Lanning said of his throw to Lazard. 'I just threw it up to him and he made a play. It was kind of behind him and a back shoulder catch and he just got a defender off of him and ran for 70 or whatever it was.”

Although Rhoads couldn't identify more specifics on what troubled the ISU offense after the first quarter, he did offer an idea: third-down conversions. The Cyclones were 3-of-12 on third downs, but one of the most glaring miscues came on second down in the second quarter.

Facing 2nd and 5, Richardson ran an option to Warren on the left side in the red zone, but Warren couldn't secure the pitch and TCU fell on it. Rhoads said Richardson checked to the option after surveying the defensive scheme, but it served as a momentum killer in a moment where Iowa State could have broken a 21-21 tie.

'It was a good check to go to the option play, but you put the ball on the ground and turn it over when you've got the opportunity to get seven points is crucial,” Rhoads said.

Holding a three-point lead at halftime, the Horned Frogs used a nine-play, 86-yard drive in 3:31 to open the second half with a 13-yard touchdown from Kyle Hicks. TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin was 27-for-32 for 436 yards and four touchdowns while receiver Josh Doctson had 10 catches for 190 yards and two scores.

TCU rattled off 31 unanswered points and held Iowa State scoreless for the final 46:49 Saturday, leaving the ISU locker room once again searching for answers.

'It's very frustrating because I personally felt like we could have won this game,” said receiver Quenton Bundrage. 'We sort of let it slip out of our hands. They're the No. 3-ranked team in the nation. They're a great team and we just lost. Simple as that.”

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