Special teams carry Iowa State past Kansas in driving rain

AMES — It's not often a punter can punt the ball nine times and be considered a hero in a 45-0 blowout win.

But that's exactly what happened in Iowa State's win over Kansas in Jack Trice Stadium.

Coaches always preach about how important all three phases are in a football game, yet most people still focus on just the offense and defense. In Saturday's game, Iowa State showed how important that third phase, special teams, really was.

'Special teams mean a lot to our team. It's kind of like our foundation,' receiver and punt returner Trever Ryen said. 'It gets the offense going and it gets the defense going.'

Ryen alone returned a punt for a 68-yard touchdown, recovered a muffed punt and downed two punts inside the 5-yard line.

Before the game, Coach Matt Campbell told his team that the special teams were going to be the determining role in the game because of the driving rain. It was hard for either team to move the ball on offense due to the wet conditions.

The special teams had to flip the field.

'The special teams have to be a major factor,' Campbell said. 'For our sake, it was. Those guys were heroes in the game, guys like Colin Downing and Trever Ryen.'

The Jayhawks didn't cross the 50-yard line until late in the fourth quarter when Iowa State had its backups in. A lot of the credit goes to punter Downing and the punt team.

'That's kind of my job, to give the defense good starting position,' Downing said. 'Coach (Jon) Heacock always says the No. 1 play in football is the punt. I take a lot of pride in what I do. Today, it was good to give my defense some breathing room.'

Kansas started four drives inside its 10-yard line.

Couple that with the Cyclones' ability to get off the field on third down and Iowa State showed its ability to stifle an offense that averaged 399 yards of offense before the game.

'We got the spark from the special teams,' linebacker Joel Lanning said. 'We handled the situations of special teams like we were supposed to. That really was what the game-changer was.'

Cornerback De'Monte Ruth said they just played defense how they were supposed to play.

They didn't look at the scoreboard, which had a zero on it all game for Kansas, and they didn't look at the yardage, which was under 100 until garbage time. They just played defense how they were taught to play.

'Give credit to those guys on defense,' Campbell said. 'I thought they were really on it today and the physicality and the detail that they played with was really important.'

Running back David Montgomery said special teams won Iowa State the game.

'We had a fumble recovery and Trever had the big touchdown,' Montgomery said. 'It changed the momentum. I knew something was going to happen, that's why I think they call it special teams because special things happen.'

On Ryen's punt return for a touchdown, he saw Ruth wave him over as if to say, 'follow me.'

Ryen did and Ruth delivered a punishing block to open up a lane for Ryen.

'Ruth's an animal,' Ryen said. 'I saw him give a little hand like, 'Hey, this way.' And I trusted him. I heard the crowd just go crazy. I thought, 'He probably got that guy pretty good.''

Ruth said the block felt good.

'Oh, it was great,' Ruth said. 'To hear the fans just roaring and I knew it was because of me, it was great.'

All in all, Iowa State played a complete game in all three phases.

On special teams, the Cyclones had a number of big special teams plays. They downed four balls inside the 10-yard line, had a punt return for a touchdown, blocked a punt, fumble recovery on a muffed punt and had eight touchbacks.

Defensively, Iowa State held Kansas to 2-for-17 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down. The Cyclones also forced 11 three-and-outs and had an interception.

The offense didn't do anything flashy or spectacular, but that was expected in a game that was delayed 30 minutes due to weather. They didn't turn the ball over and took advantage of the field position the defense and special teams gave them.

Matt Campbell said Iowa State has to play team football to win games. The Cyclones are starting to figure out and put it together.

'That's our recipe for success, to be honest,' Campbell said

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