The good news for the Iowa State football team was that after two quarters, the offense was successfully mounting a balanced attack and the defense was playing up to speed.

The bad news?

There are four quarters in a game.

And the second half belonged to Baylor, as the Bears exploded for 35 points in the second half, overcoming an early 14-point deficit to pound the Cyclones, 49-21.

”We were totally dominated in the second half,” said Iowa State Coach Dan McCarney. ”It is obvious that we don’t have enough strength or depth to stay competitive late in these Big 12 games.”

The game was played in 80-degree heat while the humidity level was at 94 percent.

”We were physically overmatched in the second half,” said McCarney, soaked with sweat after three-plus hours in the heat. ”We got mauled on both sides of the ball.

”It had nothing to do with the heat. They were just more physical than we were.”

Troy Davis had a solid day running the ball, as he carried the ball 28 times for 138 yards and a touchdown, but was upstaged by two Baylor backs.

Jerod Douglas racked up 154 yards on 19 carries while Elijah Burkins tallied 142 yards on 21 carries. Douglas had two touchdown runs, one from 67 yards out, and Burkins tacked on the final score.

”I thought going in that Jerod had a chance to out-gain Troy Davis, but I never would have thought we’d have two guys out-gain the nation’s leading rusher,” said Baylor Coach Chuck Reedy.

Davis’ average fell to 203.2 yards a game, but he managed to cling to the top spot in rushing yards. Texas Tech’s Byron Hanspard, who ran for 198 yards against Texas A&M, remains second at 201.3 ypg.

Davis also held his lead in all-purpose running and scoring. Davis is averaging 228 yards a game rushing, receiving and returning kicks and has 96 points on 16 touchdowns.

Outdoing Troy Davis was not the main priority, Reedy said.

”That was not the primary thing,” he said. ”Our offense’s main goal is to be better than the Iowa State defense. Troy Davis is a good running back, but I was glad to see our defense stop him.”

It’s safe to say their offense emerged the victor. As a team, the Bears ran wild for 397 yards on the ground. Baylor rolled up 624 yards of total offense on the day.

”We’ve been through some tough times the past three weeks,” said Reedy, whose team had lost to Texas Tech, Nebraska and Oklahoma. ”Today we just focused on being a fundamentally sound football team and we saw results.”

The collapse overshadowed everything that ISU did right in the first half. ISU quarterback Todd Doxzon hit Tyrone Watley on a 20-yard scoring strike to open the scoring and later hit tight end Damian Gibson on a seven yard touchdown.

Doxzon finished with 207 yards passing to go along with those two touchdown passes.

”Everything was going right,” Doxzon said. ”Then we got out of our groove and we can’t do that and expect to win. We weren’t tough enough to keep it going.”

The Cyclones saw a 21-7 lead evaporate after the Bears rattled off 42 unanswered points. It was a balanced attack of long runs and long passes.

”It’s frustrating to lose leads like we have, but it is a team responsibility,” Davis said. ”I knew from watching the film that Baylor would be prepared to give us a challenge.”

The loss contributed to the current winless streak on the road. The Cyclones have not won a game since Nov. 2, 1991, when they defeated Missouri, 23-22.

”When you have freshmen and sophomores making up the heart of your defense, you are going to have up-and-down play,” McCarney said.

The Cyclones also experienced problems with their health, as players found themselves on the turf more frequently in this contest than they had the entire season.

”We’re not nearly as physical as we need to be,” McCarney said. ”We have no quality depth. It’s a serious problem, especially with the schedule we’re facing.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.