You can’t spell defense without “De”-Andre – or with him. Even though Iowa State’s defense has struggled this season, things only became worse without senior cornerback DeAndre Jackson. It became apparent during Texas Tech’s 42-26 dismantling of the ISU defense that the Cyclones missed Jackson – badly.

The Cyclones lost Jackson to an ACL injury during the Oklahoma game last week, and his absence was visible in Saturday’s loss. The ISU defense allowed Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell to throw for 368 yards and six touchdowns, setting a new record for touchdowns thrown by an opposing quarterback.

“The loss of DeAndre hurt us,” said sophomore safety Jason Harris. “We’re not going to sit and dwell on his loss, but we miss him and we need him but we also need other guys to step up and make plays.”

Harris was making his first start of the season at safety, and the loss of Jackson caused the Cyclones to attempt to fill the void at cornerback with freshmen Steve Johnson and Drenard Williams. The freshmen quickly became the target of the Red Raider passing attack.

“[Texas Tech] is nationally ranked [offensively] and Graham Harrell is leading the Big 12 in passing,” said coach Dan McCarney.

“They picked on our young guys and that’s just good coaching.”

The Cyclone matchup against the Red Raiders was one they were set up to lose on paper before the game even started. Texas Tech came into Saturday’s game averaging 337 pass yards per game, good for third in the nation. The Cyclones pass defense came in ranked 95th in the nation. Throw in the absence of Jackson, and not only was the defense ranked 95th, but the team was missing its best corner and its captain.

“He’s [Jackson] a senior, he’s a captain, he’s a leader,” said junior linebacker Alvin Bowen. “He knows how to handle certain situations and how to get other people to go along with what he’s saying or what he’s doing.”

Despite the fact the defense allowed 368 yards, the total was only 31 yards more than Tech has averaged this season. Jackson won’t be returning, and the young secondary is what Iowa State will go with for the remainder of the season.

“They did OK. They did to the best of their ability,” Bowen said. “They have a little bit more hopefully they could have gave, but they just need to get more reps back there and get more comfortable. It’s hard coming in in the middle of the season and just automatically jumping in there to play.”