The young ISU defense made it out of Thursday’s opener against Toledo alive, but didn’t exactly quiet the doubters in a 45-43 triple-overtime victory.

The Cyclones surrendered 367 yards on 39-of-49 passing for three touchdowns by sophomore Rocket quarterback Clint Cochran, in his first season as starter.

After what seemed like every opportunity had passed for the ISU defense to step up, Chris Singleton finally made the big play the Cyclones had been looking for.

Toledo running back Jalen Parmele ran in for a score from two yards out to pull the Rockets within two at 45-43. Then, on the two-point conversion attempt, Cochran’s pass to tight end Chris Hopkins appeared to be caught before Singleton leveled a vicious hit on Hopkins, jarring the ball loose for an incompletion.

“This was the first game [Singleton] ever started,” McCarney said. “He did some good things, and he has some things to work on, but he did some good things for his first game.”

The defense started off strong, holding Toledo to an acceptable 157 yards in the first half, but struggled to come up with plays in key situations on third and fourth downs. Toledo was an impressive 10-17 on third downs and 2-3 on fourth downs.

“At times we did well with our coverages,” McCarney said. “At times we got good pressure, and at other times it was non-existent.”

Even in the overtimes it looked like the Cyclones wouldn’t have enough in the tank on defense to stop the Rockets.

In the first overtime, the Cyclones gave up a 25-yard touchdown pass to Hopkins – his third touchdown reception of the game – on the first play.

The very next play, which began the second overtime, Cochran completed a 22-yard pass to the ISU 3-yard line. The Rockets would score two plays later on Cochran’s quarterback sneak and took a brief lead at 37-30.

“Some of the problems we had were mental errors and I take responsibility for that,” McCarney said.

Iowa State seemed especially perplexed by Hopkins, who had 13 catches for 139 yards and three scores. Rockets Receiver Steve Odom added nine catches for 102 yards. The Rockets piled up 412 yards of offense.

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