I have put off writing this analysis long enough. Let’s take one more quick look at what happened on Saturday, then put this game to bed and move on to Kent State. It seems hard to believe that Iowa State did some good things in this game, but there were a few bright spots.
Iowa State – The Good
Reggie Stephens and the Cyclone OL was very good against Iowa and they should continue to get better
1. Alexander Robinson is a good fit for this offense and he will only get better. The running game in general was really good with 190 yards and 5.6 yard/carry average.
2. Juco safety David Sims was huge again with 2 big interceptions and 11 total tackles.
4. Ter’ran Benton did well in place of injured Kennard Banks and it was good for Jeremy Reeves to get some reps as well.
Iowa State – The Bad
1. I don’t want to pile on Austen Arnaud because he knows he played really poorly, but his play needs to be mentioned in an analysis of the game. We will let the numbers speak for themselves 10-22 for 79 yards and 4 interceptions
It was a rough day for Austen, but better days are ahead
2. Two of the biggest playmakers at wide receiver for Iowa State didn’t have a reception. Darius Darks and Sedrick Johnson had promising freshman seasons, but haven’t done anything yet this year.
4. Six turnovers (Five INT’s, 1 fumble lost)
5. Ridiculous number of penalties (9 for 79 yards) after a clean first game. Many of the penalties were drive killers for the Cyclones or kept drives going for Iowa.
6. The Cyclones haven’t scored a TD against Iowa now in over three years. In fact Iowa State didn’t even get into the red zone.
7. Iowa State lost the time of possession and tempo battle with Iowa. Iowa held a seven minute advantage in possession time. It was impossible to control tempo with the constant penalties and turnovers the Cyclones made.
8. Failure to capitalize on early Iowa turnovers. The Hawkeyes came out very shaky and David Sims came up with two picks, but Iowa State did nothing when they got the ball.
9. ISU was 5 for 15 on third down. It didn’t help that they were constantly in third and very long.
10. I still don’t like the onside kick, although after watching the tape I get why the coaches attempted it. We had the momentum and the botched attempt gave it to Iowa. The sad thing is, even if we would have recovered the kick a penalty would have nullified it.
11. Even the steady Michael Brandtner didn’t have a good game with a 32.4 punt average.
Cyclones Top Performers
- David Sims – 11 tackles, 2 INT’s
- Alexander Robinson – 19 rushes, 100 yards
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