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If you would have told any Cyclone fan the score of today’s game between ISU and Texas Tech would end up being 66-10, they almost surely would have assumed the Red Raiders would be the ones running up the scoreboard.
However, today, Iowa State played its most complete game in a LONG time and gave Matt Campbell his second win against a Big 12 opponent to move to 3-8 on the season (2-6 in Big 12 play). The tone was set for the day after the Cyclone defense forced a 3-and-out on the opening drive for Tech and the Cyclone offense responded with a touchdown to go up 7-0. ISU never trailed the rest of the way.
Normally, I’d give you a chronological order of scoring drive sequences in the game, but in today’s case, I think the final stats are going to perfectly tell you how this game went.
The star for Iowa State was Joel Lanning, who ran for 5 (!!!) touchdowns and 171 yards on the ground. The other rushing TD of the day came from the other quarterback in the Cyclone two-headed attack at QB, Jacob Park, who ran it in from the 2-yard line in the 1st quarter.
Park also had a great day through the air, hitting on 14/18 of his passes for 285 yards and 2 touchdowns. The two TD passes went to Hakeem Butler and Allen Lazard. The Lazard TD is one you have to see, as he hauled it in with just one hand:
Here is that beautiful one-handed grab from Allen Lazard (from Jacob Park) to put the Cyclones up 21-3 https://t.co/hHNGgTgZ3f
— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) November 19, 2016
Iowa State’s running backs didn’t have a standout day statistically, but David Montgomery, Kene Nwangwu and Mike Warren all ran for tough yards and kept the offense humming.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the job the ISU defense did at keeping the Texas Tech offense at bay. Led by Heisman contender Patrick Mahomes II, many figured the Red Raiders would put up big numbers. That definitely was not the case. Tech finished with 306 total yards and Mahomes went 18/36 for just 219 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions. Evrett Edwards and Kamari Cotton-Moya were the Cyclone defenders who picked off Mahomes, with Cotton-Moya returning his for 6.
Here is the pick-six from Kamari Cotton-Moya to put the Cyclones up 42-3! https://t.co/8H1E3Clcng
— Cyclone Football (@CycloneFB) November 19, 2016
The ISU offense finished with 608 total yards, didn’t turn the ball over at all, and converted on 10/13 3rd downs. That’s good enough to win a lot of games.
With the win today, Iowa State is now in the middle of its first winning streak since the 2013 season (wins against Kansas and West Virginia to close out the year).
The final game of the 2016 slate is next week against West Virginia. The Mountaineers and Cyclones will kick off at 2:30 p.m. in Jack Trice Stadium with the game being available to watch on Fox Sports 1.