Iowa State Cyclones lose poise, game to Texas

AMES — The Iowa State defense stopped the Texas offense in its tracks on its first drive of the game.

The Longhorns already were playing behind the sticks and a JaQuan Baily sack on third down seemed to seal the deal and force the Texas punt.

But one celebratory somersault later from Iowa State defensive end JaQuan Bailey resulted in a taunting penalty and an automatic first down.

Texas drove the length of the field and scored a touchdown.

The Longhorns never trailed the Cyclones, winning 17-7 in a game where Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell said his team lost its poise in a number of critical situations.

The Bailey somersault being the first of many.

'We stop them and defensively, JaQuan gets a silly penalty,' Campbell said. 'I think Jacob (Park) got rattled a little during the game because of the pressure they brought. We didn't do a good enough job protecting him. That's critical from our standpoint.'

The Texas defense uses a swarming, blitzing pass rush to make quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket. Park was sacked four times and threw three interceptions.

By the end of the game, he bailed out of the pocket every time Texas sent more than four rushers.

'I just think Park got a little bit of pressure and was uneasy in the pocket, which led to a couple interceptions and bad balls,' receiver Allen Lazard said.

Some of that pressure could have been negated if Iowa State got its run game going. However, Cyclone running backs only got 10 carries for 35 yards.

David Montgomery got nine of those for 34 yards.

Campbell said trailing the whole game, especially in the second half, contributed to Montgomery's lack of touches.

'I thought they did a good job trying to take him out of the game early,' Campbell said. 'It's a situation for us where we have to continue to find ways to get him the ball. Nine carries, obviously, not what you want from a guy that's been so critical to you. We have to continue finding ways to get David involved, he's one of our best football players.'

The Cyclones got across the 50-yard line six times in the game and only got one score, a touchdown pass to Matt Eaton. Iowa State even punted inside the Texas 40-yard line twice.

When Iowa State got across midfield, it had a hard time getting to third and manageable situations.

'Those things go back on me, the coach, not the kids,' Campbell said. 'How do we continue to find ways to put them in better positions and be successful? A lot of times we got over the 50-yard line and all of the sudden, we just don't execute or don't get any points out of it. Games like this, you can't do it.'

The reason Iowa State elected to punt when it got across the 50-yard line was because the defense was playing so well.

Outside of two 15-yard penalties, the defense maintained its poise throughout the game — despite being on the field for 40 minutes.

'I thought coach Jon Heacock had a great plan tonight,' Campbell said. 'It was so good for us to get into that bye week, defensively. I thought we were able to make some really good adjustments.'

Texas' only scoring drives came when aided by the 15-yard penalties.

Outside of those, the defense stayed composed and flew to the ball. Bailey bounced back from his early mistake and ended the day with two sacks.

Converted linebacker Joel Lanning had a career game, recording 20 tackles.

'We just showed who we are as a defense,' Lanning said. 'We're not an easy defense to put up points on. You're not going to come in here and think you're going to throw up 50 points. That's what the Big 12 offenses are set up to do, but when you're flying around like we did tonight ... Credit the whole defense.'

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