A common expression in the game of football is, “defense wins championships.” On Saturday, Iowa State’s defense showed why the Cyclones hold a legitimate shot at the Big 12 Championship.

While Iowa State’s offense took control of the game, Iowa State’s defense stepped up and did its job to help the Cyclones dominate time of possession against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

One of the things that Matt Campbell brought up and praised before the game with Texas Tech was the fact that the Red Raiders were able to run the ball so well that it allows their quarterbacks and their efficiency to shine.

Texas Tech struggled with both of these during Saturday’s game at Jack Trice Stadium.

“Really just guys doing their job, everybody when they had the play call for them and stuff like that, they did their job and we were able to get them off the field,” linebacker O’Rien Vance said.

Alan Bowman made his return under center for the Red Raiders after getting injured against Kansas State the previous week. But neither Bowman nor Texas Tech’s running back core could find much success against Iowa State’s defense.

While the Cyclones’ defense never recorded a turnover and only tallied two sacks on the day against the Red Raiders’ offense, they did shut down the majority of Texas Tech’s attempts to move the ball down the field.

The rush game for the Red Raiders seemed almost nonexistent, with the tandem of SaRodorick Thompson and Xavier White only combining for 35 of the 58 rushing yards recorded by Texas Tech all game.

“[The defense] have come to work since the start of the season and continue to do good things,” Campbell said. “It starts with the opportunity to defend the run, that has always been the utmost importance to us and I thought they did a great job of that today.”

Bowman ended his day early after completing 13 of his 22 passes for 97 yards. Bowman was eventually replaced with Henry Colombi, who found more success after throwing for 115 yards and the lone offensive touchdown for the Red Raiders.

Even through there were some hiccups in Iowa State’s performance, the Cyclone defense stood tall and were able to stall out Red Raider drives that had promise.

Iowa State tight end Dylan Soehner coughed up the ball during the third quarter and was recovered by Texas Tech’s Zech McPhearson and returned it to Iowa State’s 39-yard line.

Despite starting in its own territory, the Iowa State defense shut down the Red Raiders offense, highlighted by a fourth down conversion stop by Vance and Isheem Young.

In the fourth quarter, defensive back Isheem Young was called for targeting and was promptly ejected from the game after the play was reviewed.

Texas Tech seemed destined to put up points after driving against the defense, also thanks to the 15 free yards on Young’s penalty, but Iowa State’s defense managed to stall Texas Tech once more.

On 4th and 6 at Iowa State’s 25-yard line, Bowman overthrew his receiver in the Cyclones’ end zone, marking another failed fourth down conversion while in Cyclone territory.

“We just got to have that amnesia mentality,” Vance said. “We got to forget the play and go on to the next one. We can’t think about what happened and we got to constantly keep playing.”

Iowa State’s defense held the Red Raiders’ offense to only one fourth down conversion out of their four separate attempts.

Adding onto that, the Cyclone defense completely shutdown Texas Tech on third downs, with the Red Raiders failing to convert a single third down conversion, going 0 for 10 on the day.

Junior defensive end Zach Petersen and redshirt sophomore Will McDonald IV were the only two Cyclones to record a sack on the day, both of which were on Colombi towards the end of the game.

While Iowa State remained in the driver’s seat for the majority of the game, senior linebacker Jake Hummel dropped an interception that had implications for an Iowa State defensive touchdown following Texas Tech’s blocked field goal touchdown.

The Cyclone defense, along with a dominant Cyclone offense, dominated Texas Tech on time of possession throughout the game. Iowa State recorded nearly 41 minutes of possession, whereas Texas Tech struggled with just over 19 minutes of ball possession.

“I thought we did a really good job having the ability to control the tempo of the game,” Campbell said. “But when you play a team like that, that’s so dynamic on the offensive side, if you’re not playing complimentary football, I think you’re going to really get yourself in trouble.”