Paul Rhoads called it his team’s most complete victory.

Iowa State (4–3, 1–2 Big 12) beat Baylor (3–3, 0–2) 24–10 on Saturday night, aided by a high-powered offense, a stout defensive performance and impressive, if not inconsistent, special teams play.

“I talked to our football team about resiliency,” Rhoads said. “You start the season off in a position where you’re 3–3 and you’ve had two gut-wrenching defeats, and we haven’t had a bad week’s preparation yet.”

The two defeats Rhoads talked about were a 24–23 heart breaker against Kansas State and the 41–36 loss last week at Kansas.

Now, though, the Cyclones have their first Big 12 victory since 2007 and their first win over a Big 12 South opponent since 2005.

Through the struggles of the past two weeks, Iowa State was forced to bring home moral victories, but always managed to come back better the next week.

“We talked about ‘shedding skin,’” Rhoads said. “As a snake grows, it sheds it skin. We’ve got to quit living in the past, thinking, ‘Here we go again.’”

The offense came back from last week’s strong performance with a dominating effort in the first half. The Cyclones ran nearly twice as many plays as the Bears before halftime and out gained them 280–172.

Quarterback Austen Arnaud completed 18 of his 27 passes in the first half and accounted for 211 yards and two touchdowns before coming out of the game with a bruised throwing hand.

Arnaud’s receivers and tight ends made tough catches, both in traffic and while getting hit. Senior Marquis Hamilton led the way for the receivers with eight catches for 85 yards.

“We’re playing with a lot more confidence,” Hamilton said. “We showed a lot of promise last week and I feel like that carried over into this week.”

The defense came off a game in which they gave up 41 points and 551 yards against Kansas, when, seemingly, the Jayhawks could do whatever they wanted with the ball.

However, the Cyclones’ defense held Baylor to just 364 yards and three points before giving up a touchdown with just nine seconds left in the game.

“We played awesome,” sophomore cornerback Leonard Johnson said. “Until the fourth quarter we only gave up three points. In order for us to get to where we want to go, we’ve got to play like that all year round.”

Johnson had five tackles, including a tackle for loss, and an interception in the game. His teammate Fred Garrin, though, stole the show for the defense.

Garrin, a senior from Shephard, Texas, was second for the Cyclones with seven tackles and had a career-high two interceptions in the game.

Both Johnson’s and Garrin’s interceptions ended three consecutive Baylor drives in the second half, taking any hope the Bears had of a comeback.

“We’ve got good football players,” Rhoads said. “We’ve got players capable of helping us win on defense and they showed it tonight.”

The much-maligned special teams put in a solid effort as well, contributing 54 return yards, a field goal and a blocked punt.

However, sophomore placekicker Grant Mahoney missed three field goals on the game.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed in the kicking game, in field goals,” Rhoads said. “We left points out there on the board, those are points that are going to cost us and prevent us from winning football games as we move forward.”

Moving forward is something that Rhoads and the Cyclones are used to, though. For the first time in three weeks, they will be preparing for a game coming off of a victory instead of a close defeat.

“I’d like to believe that we’re maturing as a football team and I won’t see a different group,” Rhoads said. “I expect them to come to work and be hungry and be ready to go for the eighth week.”

Now, the Cyclones will prepare to travel to Lincoln, Neb., next weekend, a place where they have not won since 1977.

To win consecutive conference games for the first time since 2007, though, the Cyclones will have to do more of the same.

“Whatever we did this past week, we just need to do that same exact thing,” Johnson said. “[Baylor is] a good team, but every week [our opponents] just get faster and more physical.”