In what is beginning to sound like a broken record, the ISU football team heads out on the road again this week to face yet another Top 25 opponent.

One week after dropping from the polls following a 58-7 shellacking at Kansas State, the Cyclones (7-4, 4-3 Big 12) travel to Boulder, Colo., to square off with the 17th-ranked Colorado Buffaloes.

ISU head coach Dan McCarney needs his team to rebound from last Saturday’s performance to compete with Colorado.

“It’s our last Big 12 football game of the year, and we are looking to play a lot better football than we did on Saturday,” McCarney said.

“We had six turnovers. Kansas State had a lot to do with it, but those were things that are very uncharacteristic of our team. We are very disappointed with that.”

Colorado head coach Gary Barnett knows that Iowa State’s performance against the Wildcats is no reason to take the Cyclones lightly.

“[Iowa State] is a really solid football team. They ran into one of those games last week like we did against USC, where you just can’t do anything right,” he said. “It’s just one of those things. Every time they’ve had a game like that, they came back and played really well. We’re very leery of Iowa State in this situation.”

This isn’t the first time McCarney and his staff will have to spend time in practice coaching his team through such a big loss. The Cyclones had to travel to Texas after being blown out 49-3 by Oklahoma. They came back and played better, but still lost 21-10.

“I really think they’ll respond and rebound. We’ve been through this before, unfortunately,” McCarney said. “Even though we didn’t win the next week, we came back and really played a lot of outstanding football against Texas.”

Colorado (7-3, 5-1) features the ninth-ranked rushing offense in the nation, led by junior running back Chris Brown.

Brown leads the nation individually with 1,617 yards, following his 211-yard performance against Missouri last week. He also scored three touchdowns, including a one-yard run in overtime to beat the Tigers 42-35.

Brown averages more than six yards per carry, and is on a streak of seven 100-yard games.

Barnett doesn’t hide his feelings when talking about his star running back.

“I think he’s the best running back in the country. Right now, statistically, he is,” Barnett said. “He’s a heck of a kid. He’s doing a great job. He’s carrying us.”

Brown isn’t the only running threat for the Buffaloes. Junior back Bobby Purify logged 119 yards on 19 carries against Missouri. Although he doesn’t get the carries that Brown does, Purify makes the most of the ones he does get, averaging more than five yards per run.

Barnett’s Buffaloes will be playing with extra motivation this weekend. They have a chance to clinch at least a share of the Big 12 North with a win.

“It’s just another test in the Big 12,” Barnett said. “It is another great test against another great quarterback.”

With two games remaining, McCarney has been pleased with his team’s effort this season and believes they will do just fine the rest of the way.

“It’s been hard. This has been the road schedule from hell this year for us, but we’ve known about it for a long time,” he said.

“We don’t make excuses. We’re proud of being bowl-eligible through the toughest schedule in the history of Iowa State. We’re looking forward to trying to finish strong these last two games that we play.”