BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder,

Colo., is a long way from Ames.

As a team, the Cyclones found

themselves even farther away from where they were against Nebraska

last week.

Iowa State left Boulder with a

34-14 loss on Saturday.

“They came out and executed

better after their preparation than we did and that’s the bottom

line in athletics,” said coach Paul Rhoads.

Colorado earned its first Big

12 win on the strength of strong performances from running back

Rodney Stewart and quarterback Cody Hawkins. Stewart rushed 36

times for 123 yards while Hawkins was 16-of-24 for 266 yards and

three touchdowns.

Iowa State was kept in check

on offense. Running back Alexander Robinson recorded just 22 yards

on nine carries. He did manage to score to put the Cyclones up 7-3

in the first quarter, but it didn’t last long.

With just less than 12 minutes

left in the second quarter, cornerback Arthur Jafee returned an ISU

kickoff 89 yards down to the Cyclone’s 9-yard line. The kick return

set up a 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ryan Deehan. The

touchdown gave the Buffaloes a 10-7 lead, and they didn’t look

back.

“That was a significant play,”

Rhoads said. “We take advantage of a fumble and go down and score

and take a lead, then they get a big return and a touchdown and

take the lead back themselves.”

While the passing stats for

quarterback Austen Arnaud — 15-of-23 for 136 yards — don’t look

terrible, he was sacked five times. Arnaud would eventually leave

the game with a season-ending knee injury.

The team felt it was aptly

prepared for Colorado going into the game, but the Cyclones just

failed to carry out the game plan on both sides of the

ball.

“I thought we were ready to

play,” said center Ben Lamaak. “We just didn’t come out and

execute. They were putting us in some bad situations and we didn’t

come through.”

The Buffalo offensive line

opened up holes for Stewart to run through all game. The ISU

defense responded with a flurry of missed reads and sloppy

tackling.

Linebacker Jake Knott was the

lone bright spot for the Cyclones on defense. He finished the game

with a career-high 16 tackles. This was Knott’s seventh game of the

season in which he has recorded 10 tackles or more.

Stewart wasn’t the only one to

give Iowa State trouble. Eleven of Hawkins’ 16 completions went for

10 yards or more. 

His favorite target was wide

receiver Paul Richardson. Richardson caught five passes for 121

yards, and wide receivers Tony Clemons and Scotty McKnight each

caught touchdown passes.

“There were a lot of big third

downs where [Stewart] would just scramble around and we weren’t

covering our receivers,” said safety Michael O’Connell. “They just

did a good job of moving around when the quarterback was getting

pressured.”

Offensively, the Cyclones

didn’t get any momentum going until late in the fourth quarter.

Iowa State’s offensive line gave up eight sacks to one of the Big

12’s worst defenses and didn’t give Robinson any creases to run

through.

Both teams were sloppy

throughout the game. Iowa State had nine penalties for 70 yards and

the Buffaloes recorded 94 penalty yards on 10 flags.

Rhoads said he told his team

that Colorado was going to start the game with a high energy level

and that there were going to be points of adversity and momentum

changes during the game.

He feels his team didn’t do a

very good job of responding to adversity.

O’Connell and the Cyclones

have one game left to give the team a chance to play in a bowl game

this season when they host Missouri. The mistakes the Cyclones made

against Colorado can’t be repeated if that is going to

happen. 

“We made mistakes on special

teams, offense, and defense,” O’Connell said. “Any time you do

that, you don’t give yourself a chance to win.”