Coach Gene Chizik said last Saturday’s 17-7 loss to No. 4 Oklahoma delivered the message &#8212 with the right energy and emotion, the ISU football team can play with anyone in the country.

Other than that, any positive signs of the Cyclones’ (1-7, 0-4 Big 12) development may be irrelevant.

Iowa State has struggled against spread offenses this season, and on Saturday they must tame 13th-ranked Missouri’s wide-open offense that has averaged over 40 points a game.

Texas Tech and Texas scored a combined 108 points against the Cyclones with a similar style.

Chizik said Oklahoma’s run-based, play-action offense gave itself better to his team’s style of play.

He also said the Cyclones will have to stop the run first, get pressure on junior quarterback Chase Daniel and play better in space than they have this season.

“Everybody thinks Chase Daniel just throws it all over the field – you better stop the run first. I mean, they are really good at running the football. They do a great job of spreading you out, but everybody knows that Chase Daniel is also a great quarterback, so I mean, that’s why they’re six and one . it’s a great offense. They can do both of ’em equally as well,” Chizik said.

Daniel made his collegiate debut two years ago against the Cyclones, leading the Tigers back from a 10-point deficit after standout Brad Smith was knocked out of the game with less than nine minutes to play. He has since developed into one of the nation’s premier passers, averaging 326 yards per game to lead the nation’s fifth most productive passing offense on the New York Jets.

No. 1 running back Tony Temple has missed the team’s last two games with an ankle injury, but may be available. Freshman receiver Jeremy Maclin is ninth in all-purpose running yardage at 189.29 yards per game and has scored nine touchdowns receiving, rushing and returning punts and kickoffs.

The Tigers’ two main receivers are 6-foot-6-inch tight ends: Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman. Rucker is Daniel’s favorite target with an average of 75 yards receiving on almost seven catches per game, while Coffman averages five catches and a second-best 56 yards per game.

Missouri leads the nation with a conversion rate 57 percent on third downs.

“They can no-huddle you and change the tempo of how fast they come at you. They can spread you out and run you all over the field,” Chizik said. “They can take your corners and run ’em 40 yards and have no intention of throwing it to ’em just to get you tired. They have some great thoughts on offense.”

Five of the last six games between Iowa State and Missouri have been decided by 7 points or less, but – for a second straight week – the Cyclones are 29-point underdogs.

Iowa State comes into the game averaging just over 15 points per game, which ranks 116th out of 119 Division I teams.

The offense will have to get on track against a Missouri defense that had four interceptions and held Texas Tech out of the red zone in a 41-10 win last weekend.

Offensive coordinator Robert McFarland said Missouri’s defensive unit is “orchestrated chaos.”

“They come at you from all different angles; they like to slide their front,” McFarland said. “They sit there and they’ll cover every single offensive lineman up, twist out of it, bring blitzes out of it, so they do their best to just create chaos up front. And if you handle it, you got a chance to make some plays.

“If you don’t handle it, it ends up being mistakes made on the offense. And I think we saw that against Texas Tech.”

Senior quarterback Bret Meyer’s experience should be an asset handling that confusion. Meyer has a nation-leading 44 straight starts and passed Smith last week for second place on the all-time Big 12 passing list with 8,912 yards. He threw for 174 yards on 19 of 31 passing against Oklahoma, but also ran for 53 yards on seven carries, excluding a sack, and converted two fourth downs with his legs.

“He’s always been an athletic guy, and he’s always been a guy that could get out the pocket and run around, but [Saturday] he was real decisive,” said senior wide receiver Todd Blythe. “If he didn’t see his first two or three reads, if he felt protection was breaking down, he was going to get down the field and get positive yards.”

Iowa State has done an effective job on offense of keeping their opponent off the field, which will again be key against the Tigers. The Cyclones are ninth in the nation in time of possession – the one glaring positive of the offense this season, Chizik said.

Out of the top 25 teams in time of possession, only Iowa State, North Texas and Toledo have losing records. Iowa State is also one of only four of those teams in the bottom half of scoring average.

As underdogs again this week, Chizik thought there was a lesson learned from the close loss to Oklahoma.

“No matter who you play . if you play with passion and emotion, and you play every game and every down like you know you don’t know if you’ll have another down or you don’t know if you’ll have another game, you know you can play with any team in the country,” Chizik said. “And you know, I think that message is quite clear to our football team right now.

“Whatever the other people think about us that are going to play us in the next month, I don’t know. But I think it’s probably more important to us [to understand that message].”