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Iowa State Football Post-Mortem: Kansas State

Most complete win in Campbell Era?

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Farmageddon, baby. Iowa State comes off a bye week to host one of the longest uninterrupted rivalries in college football. K-State comes to town to try and continue their dominance of “Farmageddon” in the last decade or more. It would be a battle for the ages to decide which team keeps pace with Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State in the Big 12, and which team falls to the middle of the conference. With Iowa State traveling to Austin, Texas on Black Friday to play the Longhorns, Iowa State could’ve been caught with their eyes on next week, but Brock Purdy and the Cyclone defense weren’t about to let that happen.

What Went Right

(I mean, what didn’t go right? Okay, fine. I’ll try to limit myself, but just know you could be reading this section for a long, long, time.)

Brock Purdy

After a rough night against the Baylor Bears, Brock Purdy came out of the gate firing, and it was on from there. Purdy hit on his first 7 passes of the game, and finished by completing 16 of his 20 total passes. Purdy also connected with Joe Scates, Charlie Kolar, and Xavier Hutchinson for his trio of passing touchdowns (2nd game in a row with 3 passing touchdowns.) On top of his wonderful day in the air, we saw the Purdy that got us all excited oh so many games ago. Purdy was wonderful on his feet adding 59 yards on 7 carries and was nimble in the pocket, only getting sacked once. *If* Brock can limit the turnovers in the last 2 games of the season, Iowa State has a great shot to make it’s first ever Big 12 Championship Game.

These are the types of throws Iowa State is going to need:

Guess Who?

Shocker, right? Man played 3 quarters of football and still went 15 carries for 135 yards (that’s 9.0 yards per clip for those of you keeping track at home) and 2 more scores. Saturday marked Iowa State’s 8th game of the year, which means it also marked Hall’s 8th game over 100 yards and a score (at least) of the season. Breece is the first player since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2000 (TCU) to have so many such games to start the season (Tomlinson did it in all 12 games), surpassing Bryce Love (Stanford, 2017) and Leonard Fournette (LSU, 2015) who both did it in 7 straight to start the season.

So yeah. He’s having quite the season. So please, media people, pay attention to what #28 is doing here in Ames, Iowa. Thanks.

Defense

It’s been a while since this defense has put together a game like they did on Saturday. 3 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, 3 takeaways, 0 points allowed, 149 yards given up, and only 9 first downs allowed. Not to mention the defense set the tone with a goal line stand on Kansas State’s first drive of the game. Jon Heacock earned himself a paycheck and a half on Saturday having his guys ready for a gritty KSU offense. It was the first shutout from a Cyclone defense since shutting down the Kansas Jayhawks (ironically by the same 45-0 score) back in 2017. All-around incredibly performance from Iowa State on both sides of the ball.

(Also, I freaking love Mike Rose. Man doesn’t get enough credit locking down the middle of the field for this defense)

Now, for the part you’ve all waited for:

What Went Wrong

Spe... Oh forget it

Assalley missed a 45 yard field goal on Saturday. Not sure how the wind situation was, but come on... It landed in the end zone... That’s not good enough, it’s just not. I love Connor. He’s brought so many memes, and he beat Texas last year, and he’s an awesome dude... but come ooonnn. I hate to nitpick in a 45-0 win, but a 45 yard kick shouldn’t be missed short.. Anyways...

Time to play these 13 seconds on repeat for the next 5 days.

Longhorns on Friday, and Assalley knows all too well what to do against them... Fingers crossed..

Weekly Grades

Offense: A+

Defense: A+

Special Teams: C

Black Unis: Still undefeated

Breece: Hall too easy

Big 12 Standings: Gorgeous.

Now go finish it.

Have an awesome Thanksgiving, Cyclone fans. Take a day, relax with family, stuff your face with all the food you can, watch some Thanksgiving NFL Football, and get ready to yell at your TVs as loud as you can on Friday. I know that’s what I’ll be doing.