Luckily for the ISU fans amongst the Homecoming crowd of 46,485 at Jack Trice Stadium, there are two halves to a football game.

Unable to muster any offense and giving the KU offense more than 21 minutes with the ball in the first half, the Cyclones trailed the Jayhawks 9-7 after a trio of field goals from KU kicker Jacob Branstetter.

However, after a first half that found the Cyclones trailing in total yards 170-122 and first downs 10-5, the Cyclone offense came alive in the second half. Three rushing touchdowns on their first three second-half drives gave the Cyclones (5-4, 3-2 Big 12) the lead and enough momentum to hold on for a 28-16 victory over the Jayhawks (2-6, 0-4).

“I take my hat off to our kids for the execution, for never doubting and the perseverance that they displayed in playing an entire football game and finishing that thing off in the second half,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads.

Although he has been known for his fiery postgame speeches, Rhoads approached his team calmly at halftime, letting them know that they needed to start executing if they wanted to improve in the second half.

“It was a calm locker room because I made it that way,” Rhoads said. “I reminded them that this is exactly what we had expected, nobody needed to be surprised. Nobody needed to doubt, but what we needed to do was execute, which offensively we didn’t do, remotely, in the first 30 minutes of the football game.”

ISU senior quarterback Austen Arnaud completed four passes for 31 yards and was sacked twice in the first half.

“I think there was a little nervous energy coming off a big win last week,” Arnaud said. “We tried to forget and just play this week, but we came out flat as an offense.”

The Cyclones came out of the locker room with a quick second-half opening drive, at only 2 minutes and 35 seconds, but it ended with kicker Grant Mahoney kicking an extra point, not punter Kirby Van Der Kamp dropping back to punt. On the ninth play of the drive, senior running back Alexander Robinson scored on a 2-yard rush, giving the Cyclones their first lead of the day at 14-9.

“We got ourselves into a rhythm; we picked up our tempo a little bit, and when we got in a rhythm, we started executing,” Robinson said.

The senior back was a big part of that momentum as he went over the century mark in rushing yards for the second week in a row, finishing with 117 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

After a Kansas punt, Iowa State milked the clock with another lengthy drive that lasted 16 plays over 89 yards that ended with freshman running back Jeff Woody scoring his first career touchdown on a 3-yard plunge.

Then, with 1:58 remaining in the third quarter, ISU sophomore linebacker Jake Knott intercepted his fourth pass of the season which set up the Cyclones’ final score, a 33-yard scamper by freshman running back Shontrelle Johnson.

“The offensive line opened up a big hole for me, and I had to make a guy miss, but once I came out of the cut, I knew it was a touchdown,” Johnson said.

Starting out at the left side of the line, Johnson made a quick cut to the right at the line of scrimmage and dashed in for the Cyclones’ third touchdown in as many drives.

“It looked like he hurt a couple people, without touching them,” Rhoads said.

The Johnson run would mark the final score for the Cyclones as they held the KU offense out of the end zone until Jayhawk running back James Sims scored on a 5-yard touchdown reception with seven seconds left in the game.

The rushing attack for the Cyclones appeared to be in trouble at the start of the game, as starting center Ben Lamaak did not play due to an MCL sprain he suffered in the win over Texas. The ISU offensive line shuffled around a bit with starting left guard Alex Alvarez moving to center and backup center Sean Smith moving to left guard.

“We missed Ben Lamaak today, I’ll say that, but Sean Smith and Alex Alvarez with those moves did a nice job filling in,” Rhoads said.

In total, the ISU ground game racked up 232 yards on 40 carries, out-rushing Kansas by 113 yards.

Defensively, with the exception of the late touchdown score when Iowa State had sent in many backups, the ISU defense did not allow an offensive touchdown, forced a second half turnover and held the Jayhawks to only 268 total yards.

“They’ve got a nice confidence level in getting the job done,” Rhoads said. “I don’t know where we are statistically in the league, 11th or 12th at about everything that you look [at], and below 100 in a lot of things overall, but we gave up nine points on three field goals.”

Knott led the Cyclones with 13 total tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and an interception.

After forcing Kansas into a punt on their first drive of the game, ISU’s first offensive series ended quickly as Kansas recovered a fumble by junior wide receiver Darius Reynolds, giving the Jayhawks the ball on the ISU 37-yard line.

“I was scared to death that this game was going to end up a three-to-one or four-to-one turnover margin in favor of them — that would have been the worst thing that could have happened,” Rhoads said.

The Jayhawks capitalized on the good field position and put the first three points on the board after a 34-yard field goal by Branstetter. The KU kicker would put another 3 points on the board just six minutes later to give the Jayhawks a 6-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The teams traded punts to begin the second quarter, but the Cyclones would finally get a spark following the second Kansas three-and-out. ISU sophomore punt returner Josh Lenz fielded a punt on the ISU 38-yard line and after slipping an initial tackle, he changed direction and headed down the left sideline. Lenz picked up two more blocks and sprinted into the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown return. The punt return for a touchdown was the first for an ISU squad since Ryan Baum ran one back against Northern Iowa in 2006.

“For him to return that punt it was kind of, ‘What is he doing?’ at first and then ‘OK, OK, let’s run with it,'” Robinson said. “It was huge for us, it really helped us out.”

Having to run from sideline to sideline on the return brought back memories for Lenz, a former track and field star at Dubuque Hempstead.

“I was telling the guys that it felt like I had just got done running a 400- [meter run] in track, so it was pretty tiring,” Lenz said.

Leading the Jayhawks offensively was senior running back Angus Quigley who finished the game with 69 yards on 14 carries. Third-string junior quarterback Quinn Mecham ended the day 22-of-33 for 149 yards and an interception.

On the other sideline at quarterback, Arnaud was both successful on his feet and with his arm, rushing for 73 yards on 13 carries and completing 16-of-26 passes for 168 yards and no interceptions.

The senior signal caller knows there won’t be any room for a slow start next weekend when the No. 14 Nebraska Cornhuskers come to Ames. The Huskers scored 24 points in the first quarter of their 31-17 victory over No. 6 Missouri on Saturday.

“We can’t come out flat against Nebraska,” Arnaud said. “They’ll put us out of the game early, so we have to come out swinging and play the entire game.”