Iowa State did exactly what it wanted to throughout almost the entire first half.

The Cyclones (1-9, 0-7 Big 12) kept a 10-3 lead at Oklahoma in the waning minutes of the first half, but then the momentum changed. Oklahoma’s Jalen Saunders returned a Kirby Van Der Kamp punt 91 yards for the touchdown, evening the score at 10-10.

“It really hurt our football team, and I tried to pull them up out of that hole before we went to the locker room,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads in his post-game radio interview, regarding the Oklahoma punt return. “Tried to do the same in the locker room heading back out, then they got the long run from scrimmage on the second play that added to that.”

On the second play of scrimmage in the second half, the Sooners struck again, this time on a 69-yard burst by Damien Williamson. The score pushed Oklahoma ahead 17-10 and an eventual final score of 48-10 in Norman, Okla.

Despite being outscored 38-0 in the second half, Iowa State had advantages in total yards (198 to 110), first downs (12 to 6) and time of possession (16:07 to 13:53) at halftime. What also stuck out to Rhoads was the play of the ISU offensive line, which was the ninth different combination of players in starting roles this season.

“That’s the first group I was going to talk to,” Rhoads said of the offensive line. “They were protecting, they were opening up holes in the run game, and certainly against a quality opponent, maybe the best 30 minutes we’ve played to start a football game and the score reflected that at 29 minutes. Even at halftime, 10-10 against this football team in their stadium, is something to take in and build upon.”

Someone else Rhoads continues to see improvement from is quarterback Grant Rohach. The freshman started his second-consecutive game for the Cyclones and finished 21-of-34 passing for 179 yards and two interceptions.

Sophomore quarterback Sam Richardson was rotated into the ISU lineup occasionally on Saturday and scored the lone ISU touchdown on a 4-yard keeper in the second quarter.

“Our offensive line blocked great in that half and all of our running backs played phenomenally, making big gains for us and getting us down the field,” Rohach said in his post game radio interview. “I think we put a lot on those guys for us having success in the first half.”

The ISU defense kept Oklahoma’s offense to just 66 rushing yards in the first half, but the Sooners ended the game with 405 yards on the ground. Oklahoma also had two 100-yard rushers including backup quarterback Trevor Knight, who entered the game in the first half for the injured Blake Bell.

ISU linebacker Jeremiah George said he feels that the difference in the defensive performance from the first half to the second half wasn’t so much about what the Oklahoma offense was doing, but what the ISU defense wasn’t doing.

“For example, the second play of the second half, we had a blitz,” George said. “I gave it away a little bit, but guys were supposed to come down and replace and we were one man short on a lot of the big run plays so that’s what hurt us.”