Last week, Iowa State was done in by Texas Tech’s 31-0 second-half run.

A dismal first-half showing Saturday put the Cyclones in a 27-0 hole on their way to a 40-19 loss to No. 20 Texas on Homecoming weekend at Jack Trice Stadium.

“We challenged our kids pretty strong in the second half,” said ISU head coach Dan McCarney.

Iowa State outscored Texas 19-13 in the second half. But it wasn’t nearly enough — not after the Cyclones made just 45 yards and had the ball less than 10 minutes in the opening half.

“That’s embarrassing,” McCarney said.

Junior Cris Love made the first start of his career at quarterback after relieving redshirt freshman Austin Flynn early against Texas Tech and throwing for two touchdowns.

But Love, a pocket passer, was ineffective on all but quick slant routes, completing 6 of 16 passes for 49 yards and losing 32 yards on five first-half sacks.

Iowa State called 11 straight pass plays to open the game.

“There were some guys in Cris’ face in the first half,” said senior offensive lineman Bob Montgomery.

“They were able to tee off because they knew we were going to throw the ball.”

A Brent Curvey sack midway through the first quarter forced Texas to punt from deep inside its own territory, and Iowa State began its next drive on the Longhorn 42-yard line.

But Love fell down for a 6-yard loss on first down, threw the ball deep while Lance Young ran a short route on second down and was sacked on third down. Three plays, minus-11 yards.

“We just didn’t execute,” said senior receiver Lane Danielsen. “We felt like we let the defense down big time.”

Iowa State’s defense, though, also struggled, as Texas motored to 346 first-half yards and 578 yards of offense for the game — that after the Cyclones had yielded 613 and 775 yards, respectively, to Oklahoma and Texas Tech the last two weeks.

“It’s frustrating but at the same time we’re playing good teams,” said junior cornerback Ellis Hobbs.

“They’re doing their job. We’re not doing ours.”

Texas showed it could grind the clock with two touchdown drives of at least 13 plays, and showed it could score quickly, with three pass plays covering at least 46 yards.

Both junior Chris Mock and elusive redshirt freshman Vince Young were effective at quarterback, as each threw for more than 100 yards. Young added 58 yards on the ground.

“The offensive line played great today,” said Texas coach Mack Brown.

“There wasn’t any pressure on either quarterback. The quarterbacks did what they were supposed to do.”

Texas’ Cedric Benson ran for a season-high 140 yards on 32 carries and scored three touchdowns. Although his longest run was just 16 yards, Benson wore down the ISU defense all day.

“I thought Cedric ran as good as I’ve seen him run. He made some key plays on second and third down,” Brown said.

The Longhorns’ duo of All-Big 12 receivers, Roy Williams and B.J. Johnson, both had big days. Williams caught a 46-yard pass on the game’s opening drive, which ended in a Texas touchdown, and threw a 56-yard bomb to Johnson on a trick play in the second quarter to set up the Longhorns’ second score.

After Iowa State closed to 33-19 in the fourth quarter on Flynn’s fourth-down 5-yard touchdown pass to Danielsen, Johnson caught a 50-yard pass from Mock and Williams caught a 30-yard touchdown a play later to put the game out of reach.

The Cyclones had briefly gotten back into the contest behind Flynn, who replaced Love at the start of the second half and led Iowa State to 19 second-half points.

A long-dormant ISU rushing game restarted for 109 yards in the final 30 minutes, and Danielsen had a 2-yard touchdown run on an end-around in addition to his scoring catch.

“I don’t second-guess our decision [to start Love],” McCarney said. “Cris Love, frankly, practiced better this week.

“I was very impressed with [Flynn’s] comeback.”

Flynn, who added two two-point conversion runs, said he regained some lost confidence from recent struggles with his performance Saturday.

“It really kind of got me down a little bit psychologically,” Flynn said.

“[I learned] I can be a Big 12 quarterback.”

Redshirt freshman Stevie Hicks had his best game as a Cyclone, running for 67 yards on 11 carries, all in the second half.

“That’s the best we’ve ran the ball all year,” Montgomery said. “Stevie was running well.”

But it didn’t happen in the first half.

“The second half we came out better,” Curvey said. “I wish we would have played like that the whole game.”