An exciting comeback turned into another disappointing loss for the Iowa State football team on Saturday.

The Cyclones were behind ninth-ranked Colorado, 27-10, at halftime, then came out of the locker room inspired, grabbing a 28-27 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

From there, it was all downhill.

The Buffaloes scored 23 unanswered points in the last 11 minutes in a 50-28 win.

“We just can’t finish a game and somewhere along the line we’re going to have to learn how,” said Matt Straight, a senior safety for the Cyclones. “Until we finally stop some team in the fourth quarter then the same old thing will happen.”

The Cyclones may fade in the fourth quarter, but Head Coach Dan McCarney doesn’t want his team to fade away with four games left in the season.

“We’ve got a month of season and four huge games left. I do not want to fade into the sunset of college football these last four games. I want to finish strong — with positives and people holding their heads high about this program,” McCarney said.

“I don’t want to have to wait until ’96 for people to say great things and positive things about Iowa State — I want to get it done this year.”

The Cyclones are now 2-5 and have two ranked teams left on the schedule. The Buffaloes moved to 6-1 and are now ranked No. 7 in the polls.

Iowa State running back Troy Davis proved he could run for big yards against a Big Eight Conference team. The sophomore sensation gathered 203 yards on 33 carries and scored three touchdowns. He did not run the ball in the last nine minutes of the game.

Davis said he felt his performance against a tough Colorado defense should quiet some of the naysayers. He was the first running back to rush for over 200 yards against Colorado since Keith Brown of Nebraska in 1987.

Davis fumbled in the second quarter, but ISU running back coach Kirby Wilson helped him keep his confidence up with some inspiring words during halftime.

“Coach [Wilson] came up and got on me after that fumble. He said, ‘Troy, you’re a warrior. You’ve got to come back in that second half and prove that fumble never happened to you.’ So I came out there and I proved that it never happened to me,” Davis said.

Davis continues to lead the nation in rushing and all-purpose yards with 189.14 rushing yards a game and 223.71 all-purpose yards — the closest player to him in rushing is Tate Waseantait of Toledo with 168 and Alex Van Dyke of Nevada with 197.57 all-purpose yards a game.

Davis also moved up the ranks in scoring. He moved from the No. 6 to the No. 3 scorer in the nation with 12 points a game.

“I’m real proud of Troy’s production against one of the top defenses in college football,” McCarney said.

The nation’s leading rusher also impressed Colorado Coach Rick Neuheisel.

“Troy Davis is definitely for real, he’s a great back,” the first-year head coach said.

Davis now has 1,324 yards rushing this season. He needs only 193 yards to pass Blaise Bryant’s single season rushing record at ISU. If he averages 169 yards for the remaining four games on ISU’s schedule, he would be the fifth Div. I running back ever to reach 2,000 yards in a season.

“We proved to the people that we can play with anybody in the nation,” Davis said.

The Cyclone defense played extremely well in the third quarter. Straight said a lot of that had to do with a halftime talk by ISU defensive coordinator Larry Coyer.

“Coach Coyer said to just go out there and have fun and play with emotion because in the first half, especially in the second quarter, we didn’t play with emotion,” Straight said. “That’s what we did in the third quarter, just played with emotion and have fun out there, and it helped us out.”

Despite facing ranked teams almost every week, McCarney said the Cyclones are not about to give up and quit.

“Regardless of what the newspapers said last weekend, this is not the Iowa State of old,” McCarney said. “These kids won’t quit and if they do, they won’t take the field for me and this coaching staff. If I see one kid quitting, I’ll pull him off the field and he’ll never hit the field again. I feel very strong about that.”

McCarney said he was satisfied with the performance of ISU backup quarterback Todd Bandhauer. The true freshman stepped in during the second quarter after starting quarterback Todd Doxzon reinjured his left ankle.

“Bandhauer, for a freshman, did some good things,” McCarney said. “Obviously he made some mistakes, but it’s a great learning situation. You hate to put him in a situation like that to get substantial playing time, but I thought he did some good things.”

Bandhauer threw 28 passes and completed 13 of them for 130 yards, but was sacked five times and threw a crucial interception with just over 10 minutes left in the game. Colorado linebacker Matt Russell returned that interception 30 yards for a touchdown and put the Buffaloes out of reach.

“I dropped back, I saw Ed come open and I just didn’t see the linebacker. He come over in that hole and he was right there,” Bandhauer said.

As the Cyclones attempted to rally in the fourth quarter by passing and controlling the clock, several key passes were just a fingertip away from being caught.

“At that point I don’t know what was going through my mind. I wasn’t throwing the ball as well as I can and it just wasn’t working. I’ve just got to work through times like that and good times will come,” Bandhauer said.