AMES — After having a couple of days following the Labor Day weekend to debrief the offense’s performance in Iowa State’s 21-3 win over North Dakota to start its season, there is promise for what the Cyclones’ offense can become under new offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser.
It did not take long for Mouser to show his willingness to drive the ball down the field, as it only took two plays from Iowa State’s offense to get on the board less than a minute into the game.
The drive was led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Rocco Becht, who started his second full season as the starting quarterback for the Cyclones, delivering key passes to his x-factor receivers Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins.
Higgins, who caught the 21-yard touchdown pass from Becht, believed that the offense showed a lot of aggression that made a statement early on.
“I think we showed a lot against North Dakota in terms of our aggression by making plays down the field,” Higgins said.
But as the rest of the game went on, those aggressive plays seemed to tone down and a more offensive balanced play-calling was in order against the Fighting Hawks.
However, it was expected that Mouser would not showcase his full playbook against a team like North Dakota, whom they faced off to start their season.
It would have given the rest of the teams on the schedule an opportunity to take advantage and shut plays down when the time came to face Iowa State.
With that, the Cyclones’ game plan of not showing too much of their hand worked out, as it did not take a whole lot to beat a team like North Dakota that got their season started 1-0.
“This game was a good test of our discipline but we didn’t have a ton of plays, so I think there’s so much more of our offense that we can get to,” Mouser said.
Despite having less time of possession, the Iowa State offense still executed when it needed to the most which led to a victory Saturday.
“I think we’re really blessed because we got so many great situations that came from that side of the ball,” head coach Matt Campbell said. “The whole offensive staff had a great plan and had solid execution across the board.”
Now, the Cyclones move towards their second game of the season, as they prepare to take on an Iowa defense that just shut out its first opponent of the season in Illinois State.
Iowa State has always experienced some trouble moving the ball against a stout Hawkeyes defense, so expect the Cyclones’ offensive game plan to be more aggressive and creative heading into Saturday’s matchup.
