NORMAN, Okla. — Iowa State traveled down I-35 with confidence believing it could give the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma Sooners a battle.

After gaining only 60 yards of total offense, those beliefs were extinguished by an outstanding Sooner defensive attack on an overcast and rainy afternoon.

Oklahoma showed no signs of a letdown from its victory over previously No. 3-ranked Texas last week.

“They just totally dominated our offense from beginning to end,” ISU head coach Dan McCarney said. “We just were not able to make plays. We couldn’t establish a running game. I thought their defense was about as good as I have coached against, and I have been it in it a long time in the Big Ten, Big 8, Big 12, a lot of nonconference games, a lot of bowl games. I don’t know if I have ever seen a defense play better than what I saw today.”

Iowa State finished the game with four completions and three interceptions. The Cyclones were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions and gave up five rushing touchdowns on defense. The defense was on the field for longer than 42 minutes as Oklahoma ran 90 plays to Iowa State’s 45.

“It felt like we were on the bad end of four hours of football,” McCarney said. “It just seemed like it would never end, we could not get in sync. We couldn’t get first downs going, and we couldn’t get off the field defensively.”

After receiving the ball to start the game, Iowa State went three-and-out. Oklahoma’s Derrick Strait then blocked the first of nine punts by Tony Yelk. The ball sailed towards the Oklahoma end zone, where Terrance Simms pounced on it for a Sooner touchdown.

“They blocked a punt right away on us, and we felt like we were playing uphill the whole game,” ISU wide receiver Lane Danielsen said. “We just couldn’t make a play to get us rolling, and before you know it we were down 35-0 at halftime.”

ISU quarterback Seneca Wallace struggled to find time and receivers downfield, finishing the game 4-for-22 for 43 yards and three interceptions.

Wallace said going into halftime and trying to make adjustments was especially tough.

“You don’t know what to do when things aren’t going right, and you try to bounce back and get in a rhythm,” he said.

Wallace isn’t about to hang his head or dwell on the team loss.

“We still have confidence,” he said. “We just didn’t execute, and things didn’t go our way from the start.”

Iowa State appeared poised for a score when Nik Moser recovered a fumbled punt on the one-yard line. Two rushes that lost three yards and two incomplete passes ended the touchdown chances.

“That is real, real demoralizing for your football team,” McCarney said. “First and goal at the one, that hasn’t happened to us … I don’t remember if that has ever happened. We are pretty effective down there — pretty good goal-line, pretty good red-zone offense.”

The Cyclones got on the scoreboard after a six-play 37-yard drive that resulted in an Adam Benike 29-yard field goal. The Cyclones have not been shut out in the last 125 games.

McCarney couldn’t say enough about the OU defense.

“Their secondary broke on the ball about as good as any secondary I have played against and coached against,” he said. “We’ve got some pretty good receivers and we’ve got a pretty good quarterback, but it didn’t look like it today. They play fast and have great fundamentals.”

Danielsen pointed to the fact that a combination of things weren’t clicking on offense.

“Sometimes we couldn’t get open. Then the next time [Wallace] couldn’t get protection, and then the next time he would get pressured and make a bad throw. It was just a combination of things.”

It was evident the Sooners possessed more team speed as they closed gap after gap.

“Their defensive speed was more than we could handle,” McCarney said. “When you have 60 yards total offense, I don’t need to spend three hours grading it. We didn’t have anybody on offense play well. We just didn’t play well as a football team, but that’s not taking anything away from a championship-caliber performance by Oklahoma today.”

Center Zach Butler didn’t mince words. “We just flat-out didn’t play well — period end of story,” he said. “They flat-out kicked our butts and that happens sometimes in college football.”

Iowa St.-Oklahoma Stats

Iowa St. 0 0 3 0 — 3ÿ

Oklahoma 14 21 7 7 — 49ÿ

First Quarter

Okl — Sims recovered blocked punt in end zone (DiCarlo kick), 13:58.

Okl — Griffin 15 run (DiCarlo kick), 5:15.

Second Quarter

Okl — Griffin 4 run (DiCarlo kick), 13:20.

Okl — K.Jones 1 run (DiCarlo), 9:13.

Okl — K.Jones 1 run (DiCarlo kick), 7:11.

Third Quarter

ISU — FG Benike 29, 11:48.

Okl — B. Jones 22 pass from Hybl (DiCarlo kick), 1:53.

Fourth Quarter

Okl — Works 11 run (DiCarlo kick), 3:00.

A — 75,201.

ISU OUÿ

First downs 5 25ÿ

Rushes-yards 23-17 66-199ÿ

Passing 43 168ÿ

Comp-Att-Int 4-22-3 14-24-0ÿ

Return Yards 3 61ÿ

Punts-Avg. 9-35.2 6-39.8ÿ

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 5-1ÿ

Penalties-Yards 1-12 5-57ÿ

Time of Possession 17:47 42:13ÿ

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Iowa St.: Wagner 5-21, Rutland 9-19, Thompson 3-5, Wallace 6-(minus 28). Oklahoma: Griffin 23-111, K.Jones 25-86, Works 3-10, Hickson 3-2, Fagan 1-(minus 1), Hybl 11-(minus 9).

PASSING — Iowa St.: Wallace 4-22-3-43. Oklahoma, Hybl 14-24-0-168.

RECEIVING — Iowa St.: Young 3-43, Rutland 1-0. Oklahoma: Peoples 3-41, Savage 2-46, Griffin 2-11, Smith 2-10, Fagan 2-7, Clayton 1-22, B.Jones 1-22, Wilson 1-9.