In Iowa State’s 27-10 win over Northern Illinois on Thursday night, the ISU offense had 403 total yards.

A big reason — maybe even the biggest — the offense was so successful was the play of senior quarterback Austen Arnaud.

At coach Paul Rhoads’ weekly news conference Monday, he addressed the quarterback’s improved play in the opener.

“He did a great job of executing and running the offense, he did a nice job of running the football,” Rhoads said. “I’m very pleased with Austen’s first performance.”

During the 2009 season, Arnaud completed 58.7 percent of his passes, good for eighth in the Big 12.

Arnaud was 27-of-36 passing for 265 yards Thursday night, but did throw two interceptions.

“He threw two bad interceptions, and they were bad decisions on his part and bad balls on his part,” Rhoads said, “but he threw for 75 percent accuracy with 36 thrown balls, which is something he didn’t do a year ago.”

Arnaud tweaked his throwing motion during the offseason, which he said may have led to the increase in completions.

He also said, though, that he didn’t notice a difference in throwing the ball during the game Thursday, as he’s grown accustomed to it during offseason workouts.

Arnaud and running back Alexander Robinson also had a great deal of success running zone read plays Thursday night. On the play, Arnaud takes a snap in the shotgun and then either hands the ball off to Robinson or keeps it himself and runs straight ahead.

“It’s just the look the defense gives me, most of the time reading a defensive end or a linebacker,” Arnaud said. “A lot of that has to do with the running back pressing the line and seeing the cut as the line develops it.”

Robinson rushed for 97 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown out of the zone read, and Arnaud had 45 yards. He also had a 53-yard touchdown run in the first quarter that was called back due to an illegal-formation penalty. Arnaud would later get a rushing score on a 2-yard run on a read play.

Third quarter slow down

Despite the success of the ISU offense against Northern Illinois, the unit struggled out of halftime.

“I think our execution, at times, offensively was real sharp,” Rhoads said Monday. “Then we took our foot off the gas and did not, especially in the third quarter.”

In the third quarter, the ISU offense had just one complete drive, a 15-play, 56-yard drive that ended in Arnaud’s second interception.

The offense appeared sloppy in the period and had the ball for just 5:48.

“We played well, minus our lull in the third quarter,” Arnaud said. “We’re getting better at some of the stuff that we do, and hopefully it only gets better.”

Receivers

Arnaud’s success Thursday was assisted by the play of his receivers.

Eight different Cyclones caught passes against Northern Illinois, including Sedrick Johnson who had four catches for 32 yards. He had seven catches for 36 yards in 2009.

Darius Darks led the way in receptions with six, but Collin Franklin stole the show with his five catches and 75 yards.

Rhoads said he hoped Franklin would bring similar statistics throughout the season after struggling with illness during the 2009 season.

“He wasn’t a great factor all season long because of that sickness and the weakness and lack of strength that he had to deal with,” Rhoads said. “I believe everybody saw the real Collin Franklin and what he’s capable of against Northern Illinois. It needs to continue for us to be a good football team.”

ISU fans may have noticed an absence of touches for receiver Darius Reynolds, who missed nearly all of the 2009 season with a fractured fibula.

Reynolds, a junior college transfer from Woodbridge, Va., had just two catches for 12 yards in his first game back.

“I think the way we spread the ball out, I think it’s just the way this particular game turned out,” Rhoads said.

Rhoads said because of the way Arnaud spread the ball around to his receivers there is no reason to worry about Reynolds’ production.

“It’s nothing to hold him back or to reflect that we’re not thinking highly of him or guys are that far ahead of him,” Rhoads said.

Defensive questions

The ISU defense held Northern Illinois to just 249 yards of total offense Thursday night.

However, the young defense allowed some big plays and missed some opportunities for big plays of its own with missed tackles.

“We tackled better than I probably thought we did,” Rhoads said.

Rhoads said the team missed 14 tackles, but he said they came “in bunches” and there were stretches of the game when the defense would miss tackles on consecutive plays. 

“Defensively we ran around real good,” Rhoads said. “We played with outstanding effort.”

Two fresh faces at linebacker, Jake Knott and A.J. Klein, led the way for the ISU defense. Klein led the defense with 15 tackles, while Knott added nine tackles and two interceptions.

“I think they got off to a real good start in their careers as linebackers,” Rhoads said. “There were enough mistakes there to keep them grounded and keep them humble, and they’ll learn from that.”

Klein said he liked what he saw from the defense while reviewing the game film this weekend.

The sophomore from Kimberly, Wisc., said the defense swarmed to the ball and gang tackled as a team, but recognized the tackling struggles his coach brought up.

“We need to improve on the tackling,” Klein said. “This week we have some big backs again, that we need to be able to bring down with just one person. We can’t rely on everybody else.”

Rhoads told his linebackers that they lunged for tackles too often Thursday night, telling them they need to run through tackles, something he’s taught them since his first day on campus.

However, despite their struggles tackling Thursday night, Rhoads said the players recognized their own struggles and are willing to work to improve in that area.

“They know they have a lot to learn and a long ways to go, but they’re willing to give the effort and give themselves an opportunity to have those types of performances week in and week out,” Rhoads said.

Jennert Cited 

Reserve wide receiver Donnie Jennert was cited for underage possession of alcohol early Saturday morning.

Jennert, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, is listed at No. 3 on the depth chart behind Sedrick Johnson. He did not see time in Thursday’s game.