“The hour is getting late.”

– Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower.

November. At the risk of sounding trite, the 11th month of the year is put-up-or-shut-up time for the ISU football team.

“Every game we play now is paramount. And each one makes the next one bigger,” says John Skladany, Iowa State’s defensive coordinator.

November. At the risk of gushing with exaggeration, each game this month is The Biggest Game of the Year.

This weekend, Colorado serves as The Biggest Such Game: Part I.

Colorado is ranked 21st in the nation. Colorado is 7-2 this year.

Colorado beat Kansas State (16-6 on October 6). Kansas State manhandled Iowa State.

“I think every team in this league is good,” ISU tight end Mike Banks says. “Every team in the league can beat you any week. I don’t think Colorado’s superior to Kansas State.”

Kansas State was, if not an aberration, a wake-up call for the Cyclones.

Banks says more players will be focused this Saturday. New game plans will be used this Saturday.

However, Banks says the Cyclones will not abandon the strategies (sound running and passing games and bend-but-don’t-break defense) that garnered Iowa State’s 5-3 record.

“We just didn’t execute last week,” he says.

Banks blocks for a platoon of running backs. The featured one, Ennis Haywood, carried the ball 10 times for six yards against the Wildcats.

In spite of the rushing ineptitude, Haywood says he and the offense around him do not lack confidence.

“We’ve been successful in the past. All we have to do is execute,” Haywood says.

Last week, “We beat ourselves a lot of the time. We just, like I said, didn’t execute,” he says.

Iowa State punted four times, unsuccessfully attempted two fourth-down conversions, were intercepted three times and fumbled once against Kansas State.

Twice the Wildcats started drives in Cyclone territory. Both ended in Kansas State touchdowns.

Kansas State also had the ball for nearly 40 minutes of game time to Iowa State’s 20.

Iowa State’s offense, which averaged 414 yards in its first seven games, was held to 174 yards.

“We were totally dominated by Kansas State,” ISU head coach Dan McCarney said afterward. “We could not do anything.”

“I don’t know why it ended up like it was,” Skladany says. “Going into it, I think I was a lot more confident. I don’t know what the heck happened.”

Everyone agrees that Kansas State was more physical than Iowa State.

Everyone agrees that can’t happen again.

Controlling the game clock is a way to do so.

“We want to be able to get [our defense] off the field and eliminate as many long drives as we can,” Skladany says. “So we don’t give up possession time. So we give the offense a chance.”

The offensive effort, Banks says, was lacking last week.

The Cyclones can ill afford to have a similar outcome in any of the remaining games.

“We’ve come to a three game series,” Haywood says.

“It’s a big, big game for us,” Skladany says. “And a big challenge.”