Iowa State proved they could play with the nation’s best for three quarters during Saturday’s showdown with No. 2 Nebraska. The only problem was that the Huskers dominated the fourth quarter and pulled away for a 49-27 victory.

The Huskers entered the fourth quarter clinging to a 21-20 lead but outscored the Cyclones 28-7 in the final 15 minutes to improve to 5-0. The Cyclones fell to 4-1.

“My congrats to Coach Solich and his team. They deserve the number one ranking,” said ISU Head Football Coach Dan McCarney. “We’re sick and disappointed that we didn’t win this game. We went out to win the game and not just look respectable.”

The key play of the game came in the fourth quarter when Husker free safety Troy Watchorn intercepted a pass from Cyclone wide receiver Lane Danielsen on a botched trick play.

The Huskers had just scored less than a minute earlier on a 9-yard touchdown run by Willie Miller, and Watchorn’s interception gave the Huskers good field position to score again.

“When we had to play the kind of defense to get it done, we stepped up,” said Nebraska Head Football Coach Frank Solich. “There were key plays that were vital to us winning and certainly Troy’s interception was part of that. He seems to be a guy that’s in the right place at the right time.”

Three plays later, Correll Buckhalter scored from one yard out, his second touchdown of the game, to give the Huskers some breathing room with a lead of 35-20.

“That’s what can happen when you play a quality team like Nebraska,” McCarney said. “They can really put up points in a hurry and obviously they did that.”

Cyclone quarterback Sage Rosenfels turned in another big effort with a career-high total of 346 yards passing, including a pair of touchdown passes. Rosenfels’ 346 passing yards ties him for fourth-best single-game effort in school history.

Rosenfels put the Cyclones ahead 7-0 in the first quarter with a 53-yard scoring strike to Chris Campbell and hit J.J. Moses with a 15-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. Moses finished with 158 receiving yards on 11 catches.

Despite the solid outing, Rosenfels was more concerned with his team’s mental mistakes.

“We stopped ourselves more than they stopped us today,” Rosenfels said. “The little things like dropped passes, penalties, me not reading the right guy – whatever it was, I thought we stopped ourselves a lot today, but we got to give credit to Nebraska.”

The Cyclones came into the contest with the 13th best rushing attack in the nation while the Huskers were 10th in the Big 12 against the run.

Those numbers turned out to be misleading as the Husker defense limited the Cyclones to 37 yards rushing on 25 carries. A week after racking up 241 yards against Baylor, ISU tailback Ennis Haywood only managed 27 yards on 11 carries.

“We knew coming in that Iowa State had a great running attack and one of the best running backs in the Big 12 in Ennis Haywood,” said Husker defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch. “To hold Iowa State to 37 yards rushing really says a lot about the potential of our defense. We’ve been waiting all year to show signs of a great defense and we did that today.”

During the week leading up to the game, McCarney had high praise for Husker quarterback Eric Crouch, and the junior didn’t disappoint. Crouch rushed for 138 yards on 19 carries and went 7-of-17 for 164 yards through the air.

The only mistake Crouch made came in the second quarter with the Huskers leading 10-7.

Crouch tried to hit receiver Matt Davison with a quick slant but Jamarcus Powers stepped in front of Davison for the interception and ran it back 40 yards for a touchdown.

“Eric was extremely sharp throwing the ball in the second half, and he moved on and played great after the interception,” Solich said.

The Cyclones will be back in action Saturday, traveling to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State. McCarney feels his team can take away positives from the defeat.

“We have a lot to build on coming out of this game,” McCarney said. “We played Nebraska so much better than we have in the past. We played a lot of good snaps and some good Big 12 defense. We’re coming out of the game 4-1 and relatively healthy and a lot of good things can happen if we keep improving.”