The ISU football team lost its first conference game of the season to Texas Tech 24-13.

The game started with three straight punts, with Iowa State (3-0) punting twice. In those first two three-and-outs for Iowa State, the ball was only handed off once to Shontrelle Johnson for no gain.

ISU quarterback Steele Jantz then dialed up five straight passing plays that resulted in a total of three yards, with two sacks along the way. 

Aside from James White’s 36-yard scamper, Iowa State rushed the ball seven times for only seven yards in the entire first quarter. Jantz was also only 2-for-4 for three yards.

This was much different than Jantz’s first quarter performances in the previous three games, where he was 21-for-27 for 232 yards and three touchdowns. His completion percentage during that time was 77.8 and he had a 179.2 quarterback rating. 

The first score of the game came from linebacker A.J. Klein’s pick-six for 87 yards. The play occurred on third and eight in the red zone after Texas Tech had put together two plays over 10 yards and added a third with a late hit on Klein moving the ball to the 19-yard line.

TTU quarterback Seth Doege threw across his body and never saw Klein, who jumped the route while waiting in the middle. 

The Cyclones 157 minutes 40 seconds without allowing an opposing touchdown was snapped with 1:32 left in the second quarter after the Red Raiders tied the score 7-7. 

Iowa State scored on its first drive in the second half, but with ISU kicker Edwin Arceo missing the extra point, only led 13-7. 

After a third and long that was converted on a 21-yard scramble by Jantz, the Cyclones then ran the ball eight times over the next 10 plays before Jantz hit tight end Ernst Brun in the back corner of the endzone for a touchdown that was upheld upon further review. 

On that drive alone, Iowa State reestablished the run game with the combination of James White and Shontrelle Johnson. White had 10 yards and Johnson had 33 yards on only four carries to bring Iowa State inside the 10 before the touchdown pass the Brun. 

The third quarter was still a struggle for the ISU offense through the air. Jantz finished the quarter 3-5 for 20 yards and a touchdown. 

Again defensively Iowa State struggled. Doege completed eight of his 11 passes for 97 yards and a score to put Tech in front. Doege spread the ball around better than any other quarterback the Cyclones had faced the entire year, completing passes to 10 different receivers, including seven passes for 98 yards to Eric Ward. 

After a missed field goal by Texas Tech, Iowa State took over on downs at its own 24-yard line. On a third and seven, Ernst Brun had the ball knocked loose on a pass and was intercepted by Cornelius Douglas and returned to the nine-yard line. The Raiders scored on the next play to Ward, for his eighth catch of the game, sucking the life out of Jack Trice Stadium in the process.  

Jantz turned the ball over two more times after the Red Raiders took the lead. One was a fumble on Iowa State’s last chance to tie the ball game where the ball slipped out of his hand and the other on an interception into the end zone, which would be the last time Iowa State had the ball. 

Postgame Chatter

“More games are lost than are won and we showed that tonight. Two fantastic defensive efforts by our kids and the Texas Tech defense. A lot of credit to them. To win in the Big [12] you’ve got to persevere, you’ve got to play all sixty minutes, they got that done better than we did tonight.” – ISU coach Paul Rhoads

“Steele Jantz is not the one to blame for this single loss. Obviously Steele Jantz contributed to it, but we don’t need to jump on that wagon right now and start beating him.” – ISU coach Paul Rhoads

“Yeah it’s tough, eyspecially when we’re on the field as much as we were, but that’s the name of the game. We have to show up to play and we’ve got to stop them when we need to stop them. So we didn’t do our job as far as keeping them out when we needed to.” – ISU defensive tackle Jake McDonough on getting fatigued throughout the game. 

“I had to come back for the ball, the defender had his hand on it. Right when I came down and turned around the safety came over top and just, he had to be going full speed and knocked the ball out of my hands.” – ISU tight end Ernst Brun on the catch that was lost to Cornelius Douglas.

“They ran some plays that they hadn’t shown on film every single game last year. They came in with a lot of new stuff and I think the defense played okay and in certain situations we played fine, but we didn’t get that big play at the end to help get the offense out there.” – ISU linebacker Jake Knott on Texas Tech’s offense