Iowa State at Oklahoma Recap: Sooners Dominate Cyclones in Familiar Fashion

Iowa State took ten plays and kicked a field goal on their first drive, but Oklahoma responded with a flea flicker off a reverse on their first play for scrimmage and set the tone in a 52-16 victory on Saturday night.

It appeared on the first drive that Joel Lanning's legs and careful running were going to keep the Cyclones in the game with the Sooners. Cole Netten hit a 43 yard field goal to cap off the drive and give the Cyclones a 3-0 lead. Oklahoma responded with a flea flicker that involved a handoff to Samaje Perine, a pitch to Sterling Shepard, another pitch to Baker Mayfield, and a completion to Dimitri Flowers for a 75 yard touchdown. 13 seconds after Iowa State scored, Oklahoma led 7-3.

The story continued over the next seven minutes as the Sooners added touchdowns of 27 yards (Mayfield to Dede Westbrook) and 17 yards (Mayfield on a more athletic than it should have been run). Before anyone could blink it was 21-3 Oklahoma and the game was effectively over.

The second quarter tipped Iowa State's way with two more field goals from Netten, including a career long 51 yard field goal, and the halftime score of 21-9 didn't seem insurmountable.

The next five scores all belonged to Oklahoma, however, and with 8:59 remaining in the 4th quarter the score was 52-9 in favor of the Sooners. Joel Lanning did lead a touchdown drive that culminated in a 13 yard pass to D'Vario Motgomery, but that was the final high point for a Cyclone squad that was never able to find traction.

Lanning finished 26-51 for 260 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Oklahoma native Mike Warren had 43 yards on 18 carries and will wait another week to break the 1,000 yard mark. Allen Lazard was the lone bright spot on the offense with eight catches for 101 yards.

In the end the Cyclones were overmatched on both offense and defense. Oklahoma's offense has weapons at every position and puts defenses in a "pick your poison" situation, and the Oklahoma defense is unquestionably the best in the conference. It's tough to expect a pair of redshirt freshmen in the backfield to have any more success than they did tonight.

As so often happens after a game in Norman, we move on to the next game on the schedule, which is Iowa State's home finale against Oklahoma State on Saturday, November 14th. Kickoff time will be announced on Sunday.