The Cyclones showed improvements in key areas in the team’s bounce-back 27-14 win at home against TCU and showed their ability to play a complete game on both sides of the ball.
Iowa State is back at .500 with its win against the Horned Frogs on Saturday and answered some question marks that had plagued them throughout the season. While the Cyclones still have a handful of tough games as they prepare for the second half of their schedule, things are looking up for the bowl game-hungry team.
Offensive line is making plays possible
While it took five games of working out the kinks and getting the right players in, new offensive line coach Ryan Clanton has got his guys playing their best ball in both run and pass blocking.
The Cyclones rushed for 214 yards between four running backs and averaged 6.2 yards on 34 carries.
Prior to the game against the Horned Frogs, the Cyclone’s offensive line struggled to create interior holes for their young backs, which often caused the play to be blown up early and forced the ball carrier to run off script and make a move outside. But whether it was Eli Sanders, Abu Sama III or Cartevious Norton, Iowa State found success with its vertical run game all night long against TCU.
Sanders and Sama combined for 158 yards and each scored a touchdown. The latter, a true freshman, had a breakout game with a 55-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, which was the first of his collegiate career.
A standout on the offensive line has been new freshman starter Brendan Black. Whether he has been on the interior or at his traditional left tackle position, Black has made his presence known with his powerful strength and has played a huge role in jumpstarting the change in the run game.
The offensive line continued to prove themselves in the pass-blocking game as they kept quarterback Rocco Becht clean all game and allowed zero sacks.
Becht showed a different level of comfortability
The redshirt freshman signal caller didn’t necessarily have the best bounce-back game as he finished completing less than 60% of his passes, but thanks to the help of the run game, Becht wasn’t asked to have a perfect game as he had been in the past.
Becht served the role of a game manager against the Horned Frogs with his 138 yards and a late touchdown to tight end Easton Dean, and while it won’t always be that easy for him, it was enough to compliment the run game.
In games where Becht has attempted 30 or more passes, he’s completed 56% of his passes and has thrown three of his five picks in those games. If the young and still inexperienced man behind center can continue to make big throws when asked to but also rely on the run game, the Cyclone offense should continue to make the most of their opportunities on the field.
Picks, sacks and even more picks
The Iowa State defense had struggled the last two weeks against Big 12 opponents despite having three turnovers in those two contests. They had taken a major step back in terms of yards allowed.
Coming off of the 50-20 loss against the Sooners, whom they allowed over 500 yards of offense to most of the season, the Cyclones needed a step in the right direction to prove they could keep up with fast-paced Big 12 offenses.
To the tune of four interceptions and less than 400 yards of offense, the Iowa State defense made the big plays when they needed to and gave the Cyclones multiple opportunities to score, which they took advantage of.
Those four interceptions for Iowa State brought them to 10 on the season, which is the second most in the Big 12 behind Oklahoma with 12.
One thing that Iowa State’s defense excelled at earlier in the season that they got back to in this game was its ability to keep offenses out of the red zone and out of field goal range. While they will still give up the occasional big play every now and then, the Cyclones allowed less than 21 points for the fourth time this season and proved they are still capable of being a lockdown defense.
