After a tough opening weekend, the Big 12 Conference needed to bounce back and Week 2 provided plenty of opportunities to make a statement. One of those statement games was in Iowa City as Iowa State went on the road to take on Iowa.
There is no love lost in this great in-state rivalry as both sides absolutely despise one another. As always, there were plenty of twists and turns in this wild game. This rivalry dates all the way back to 1894 and the winner of this game walks away with the coveted Cy-Hawk Trophy. In the end, Iowa State came away with the win. Here are my three takeaways on Iowa State’s epic 20-19 victory over Iowa.
Iowa State’s Defense Showed Up
Despite losing their best defensive player in Caleb Bacon last week as well as his backup Jack Sadowsky, I thought the Cyclones did a pretty good job in this game. They did allow way too many rushing yards to Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson (187 yards and two touchdowns), but they buckled down when it mattered most. Iowa had the ball inside Iowa State’s five-yard line twice in the second quarter and only came away with six points. Those two goal line stands were crucial because they kept Iowa State in the game.
While the defense did a good job, they were even better in the second half. In fact, in the last six drives for Iowa’s offense, Iowa State gave up just 23 total yards and also had an interception to end the game. It doesn’t get much better than that and give defensive coordinator Jon Heacock some credit. His defense played its ass off and he called one hell of a game. Without this defense, Iowa State wouldn’t have one this game.
Iowa State’s Offense Settled Down
The toughest thing to watch in the first half of this game was Iowa State’s offense. Typically, it would be Iowa’s offense that would make you want to pull your hair out but surprisingly it wasn’t. The Cyclones started the game backed up to their own goal line and had two penalties in their first three plays of the game. It seemed like the offense had a penalty to start every single drive and it put them behind the chains. To make matters worse, even their punter had to get taken out due to not being able to handle the snap. When the first half was over, Iowa State was scoreless and went 0/7 on third down with a total of just 101 yards of offense.
In the second half, Iowa State settled down. Rocco Becht led a beautiful nine play 75-yard drive for a score and then followed that up with an absolute 75-yard bomb to Jaylin Noel to put 14 points on the board in a matter of minutes. Of course, when their backs were against the wall, Becht once again came up clutch as he hit Noel for a huge 30-yard gain that set them up in field goal range with less than 30 seconds left.
The Kick Heard Around the World
It’s never easy being a freshman kicker, but to have to attempt your first ever field goal on the road against your in-state rival has to be tough. That is exactly what Kyle Konrardy had to do today and I could only imagine the nerves that were running through him. On his first kick attempt, he missed a 41-yarder to end the half. While he did pull it a little left, I noticed that the laces were facing the wrong way when he kicked it.
Kyle quickly bounced back in the third quarter when he drilled a 46-yard field goal which ended up being his first-career made kick. As impressive as that kick was, it had nothing on his last kick of the game. With nine seconds left in the game and his team down by two, Kyle booted a 51-yard field foal to give Iowa State the lead with just six seconds remaining.
That kick ended up being the deciding factor as the Iowa State went on to win 20-19. Iowa is now a Cyclone State!
