Nebraska rode its first half domination of the Cyclones to a 35-7 victory over Iowa State in front of a crowd of 48,794 at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday.

The game started off auspiciously for the Cyclones, as their defense forced three fumbles on the Cornhuskers’ first drive of the day — the last one, a fumble by senior quarterback Joe Ganz, was recovered by freshman Stephen Ruempolhanner at Nebraska’s 49 yardline.

From that point on, Nebraska took over the game. The black shirt defense held Iowa State scoreless in the first half, allowing just 45 total yards and two first downs.

“We are out of sync offensively,” head coach Gene Chizik said.

Meanwhile, the Cornhusker offense seemed to move the ball whenever they wanted against the Cyclone defense. Nebraska did not move the ball with big plays, but rather took the ball up and down the field, routinely gaining 5 to 15 yards per play in the first half.

“Assignments blown, technique not being there when it should be, just, you know, the mental toughness of the first half wasn’t really there,” freshman cornerback Leonard Johnson said.

Nebraska’s three firsthalf touchdowns came on drives of 9 plays for 92 yards, 11 plays for 85 yards and 9 plays for 71 yards. Ganz threw for 328 yards in the game, including 283 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Running back Marion Lucky added two touchdowns, both in the first half, helping Nebraska to a 21-0 half time lead.

“We did have a bad first half,” Chizik said. “The second half was a little bit better, but you know, it really wasn’t much better.”

The Cyclones started the second half quickly, scoring a touchdown in 37 seconds on a career long, 67-yard run by sophmore running back Alexander Robinson. Robinson’s previous high was 37 yards.

“We had a little bit of a spark from A-rob, from Alexander, but other than that, it was hard to run the football again,” Chizik said.

The Cyclone defense also played better in the third quarter, allowing just two first downs in the quarter. But Iowa State couldn’t capitalize.

“Everyone is riding high, telling me, ‘Oh yeah, we are going to go in there and we are going to score,'” quarterback Austen Arnaud said. “Sure enough, we get the ball back, and then we just get right in, and it seems like we weren’t executing like we did on that last drive.”

Nebraska reasserted themselves in the fourth quarter, as Ganz pushed the game out of reach on a quarterback sneak from the one yard line for a 28-7 lead.