The Cyclones traveled to Provo, Utah, Saturday and took on the BYU Cougars in a game where both teams had the ability to become bowl-eligible with a win.
Iowa State was the team to clinch a bowl appearance, as the Cyclones dominated their way to a win over the Cougars by a score of 45-13.
Here are the three big takeaways from Iowa State’s win over BYU.
Early turnovers set the tone quick for Iowa State
Within the first few minutes of the game, Iowa State dominated BYU in every fashion, which was led by key turnovers.
The first play that set up the turnover party came from a forced fumble on the opening kickoff that ended up being recovered by BYU.
An interception by linebacker Will McLaughlin gave Iowa State its first turnover, which happened immediately after the forced fumble on the kickoff. The interception by McLaughlin was the second of his career, with his first coming in the Cyclones win against TCU this season.
The last turnover from the early stretch came from a forced fumble from linebacker Caleb Bacon, who also collected a sack on the day among four total tackles. This fumble ended up in the arms of Cyclones defensive back Drew Surges, which led to a 31-yard field goal by kicker Chase Contreraz to put the Cyclones up 10-0 in the first 3:30 minutes.
Defensive back Jamison Patton then forced Retzlaff to throw his second interception late in the fourth quarter which added up to their turnover total and was also Patton’s first collegiate interception
Running back room bowls over BYU’s defense
The Cyclones’ strategy to run the ball has set the tone early for their offense throughout the season when they get it right. In this game, Iowa State had no problems getting the running game going that involved the majority of their ball carriers.
Running backs Eli Sanders, Abu Sama III and Cartevious Norton each scored a rushing touchdown and accounted for over 200 rushing yards.
Sama did not make an appearance in the Cyclones homecoming loss to No. 22 Kansas, but he made up for his absence in this win over BYU. On the day, he led the running back room as he rushed for 110 yards on eight attempts for two touchdowns and he refused to go down every time he got the ball.
While Sama got most of the work in this game, Sanders and Norton still had big runs that contributed to the Cyclones’ success on the ground. Sanders ran the ball nine times for 57 yards while Norton rushed the ball six times for 42 yards along with their respective touchdown runs.
It was a struggle to accommodate all three of these running backs into a game plan for Iowa State throughout the season, but it proved not to be a problem in its win over BYU.
Third down conversions key to Iowa State’s success on offense
While the running game gashed the BYU defense, many of these plays would not have happened if not for Iowa State’s ability to convert third downs.
Led by quarterback Rocco Becht, Iowa State converted eight of its 14 third down attempts that made it key to its scoring drives in this dominating performance.
On the season prior to this game, the Cyclones struggled to keep drives alive on third downs, as they were forced to punt more times than they would like.
Iowa State had completed 47 of its 129 third down attempts (36.43%) prior to the game against BYU, and it was a glowing issue that needed to be fixed quickly and was in against the Cougars.
These third down conversions also kept punter Tyler Perkins off the field throughout the majority of the game, as Perkins was only forced out four times to punt the ball back to BYU.
All facets of this Iowa State team were working on Saturday in Provo, as the Cyclones will return back home with hopes held high especially now with a bowl-clinching appearance under their belt.
