Christian Royston, Sports Editor (1-1)

Iowa State 28, Ohio 10

Ohio is coming off an impressive season in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) where the Bobcats found themselves in the MAC Championship. Although I’m not going to count out Ohio yet, I am fairly confident that the Cyclones should get a comfortable road win.

Iowa State dominated its week one matchup before falling in a close game to a top-25 ranked team in the Hawkeyes. Iowa State’s offense has looked a lot smoother than expected with just a few hiccups in the first two games. The defense has also continued to produce at an elite level.

Last season the Cyclones took down Ohio 43-10, although it was in Ames. With the way Iowa State has played against steeper competition, the outcome should be similar this season. It may not be as high scoring with Iowa State still trying to figure out its offense, but it should still be a comfortable win.

Logan Shanks, Assistant Sports Editor (1-1)

Iowa State 33, Ohio 9

The Cyclone’s offense fell into a rut for most of the Cy-Hawk matchup, and their goal against the Bobcats should be to get things back on track. Iowa State found a lot of success in the season opener against Northern Iowa when the Cyclones didn’t force Rocco Becht to make plays and trusted their deep running back room which rushed for 102 yards on 22 total carries. 

We’ve seen Becht have two completely different games in his starts this season, one with 13 passing attempts in the win against UNI and the other with 44 in the loss against Iowa. I expect offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and head coach Matt Campbell to have a game plan that has Becht attempting around 20-25 passes and get their young starter into a rhythm heading into Big 12 play.

If the Cyclones get up early I expect that true freshman quarterback JJ Kohl will get a chance to command the offense for a couple of drives. The Iowa State defense shouldn’t let up more than a few scores, which will most likely come at the end of the game, as they look to bounce back from their slow start against Iowa.

Pavle Markovic, Sports Reporter (2-0)

Iowa State 24, Ohio 6

Coming off of a crushing loss at home to the in-state rival Iowa, the Cyclones now look to bring their record back above .500 by facing off against the Ohio Bobcats in Athens, Ohio. I have the Cyclones bouncing back, and getting their big win before they start off their Big 12 schedule by a score of 24-6.

Iowa State faced off against the Bobcats last season in Ames as the Cyclones clobbered Ohio by a score of 43-10 in a fantastic showing on both sides of the ball. Now in a brand new season with new players and new coaches, the Cyclones face off against this team yet again, but this time on the road.

However, the Bobcats don’t seem to have an answer for their quarterback room as they’ve had three different quarterbacks play in their three games this season. Expect the Cyclone’s defense to make Ohio’s offense a living nightmare on Saturday. As for the Iowa State offense, expect Becht to have himself a bounce-back game in this much-needed road trip for Iowa State.

Jay Waagmeester, Academics Editor 

Iowa State 39, Ohio 7 

In the UNI game, we saw an efficient, strong offense from Iowa State that limited mistakes early on. That offense faded away some but left fans in the cardinal and gold with a comfortable win. 

My theory, especially during the Matt Campbell era, is that Iowa State’s season is the opposite of what happened during the Cy-Hawk game.

Iowa State fans have watched their football team struggle early in the season before, but in recent history, Campbell’s cabinet and players have got the ship sailing well enough by the third conference game, which puts us at this week.

During the Campbell campaign, the Cyclones have produced a +6.6 point average margin of victory in the first non conference game of the season, including two losses. In the third non conference game of the season during the Campbell era, though, Iowa State boasts a +34 point margin of victory. 

I anticipate smooth sailing for the game against Ohio: high-producing offense for Iowa State and several special team errors from Ohio.

The young team and newly appointed offensive coordinator have now had two opportunities at game reps and this is where we see the real Cyclones; at least the team that will stick around for the first half of Big 12 play.