Iowa State Falls to Texas 26-16

Iowa State couldn’t manage to send the Longhorns packing with one final loss in Ames tonight, as Texas prevailed by a final score of 26-16.

Line play was the story of the contest, with Texas dominating the line of scrimmage in this game, holding the Cyclones to a miserable 9 yards rushing for an average of 0.4 yards/attempt, while Texas rushed for 123 on the ground.

The game opened in a boring fashion, with teams trading punts until the Cyclones put together an 11 play 53-yard drive ending in a Chase Contreraz field goal. Texas would quickly counter with one of their own making it 3-3. Iowa State would then drive into Texas territory before stalling out and missing a 50-yard field goal, breaking Contreraz’s streak of 12 consecutive makes.

The Longhorns would drive deep into ISU territory before Jeremiah Cooper forced a Xavier Worthy fumble and Will McLaughlin recovered it. Ultimately, Texas would drive back and kick a field goal to take a 6-3 lead at the break.

The second half was wild by comparison, with Texas scoring a touchdown on their first drive thanks in part to some creative offensive play-calling, but Iowa State answered right back. Rocco Becht found Hayden Higgins for a 33-yard strike and Ben Brahmer nearly broke one to get them into the red-zone. Becht would toss a nifty wheel-route pass to Eli Sanders for the score.

Then, however, the Cyclones lost the momentum for good. The ensuing extra point was then blocked and returned for 2 points, putting Texas up 15-9.

The Longhorns would punt, but a Rocco Becht interception led to a Texas TD, putting the game out of reach. A nifty fake-dive 66 yard Easton Dean touchdown made it close, but Iowa State couldn’t get stops when they needed to.

In all, Texas out-played Iowa State, especially in the trenches, and the Cyclones made a few too many mistakes to win. In all, a respectable showing against a very good Texas team.