AMES – For the first time in the 2024 college football season, Iowa State has lost a game. The No. 11 Cyclones ran out of time in the 23-22 loss to Texas Tech Saturday.
Sloppy play and execution that included a failed fourth-and-two early and a puzzling third-and-10 call late in the game plagued Iowa State. A majority of drives made it past midfield, but few ended in scores.
“We own it,” Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said. “Hopefully we’ve got enough courage in ourselves to correct it and move ourselves forward.”
The third-and-10 call led to a missed 51-yard field goal from redshirt freshman kicker Kyle Konrardy. The kick was head-on into the wind, but Konrardy did make his other two field goals from 49, 37 and 21 yards, respectively.
Campbell said the goal was to gain a few yards to get into a situation to either go for it on fourth down or get the ball into a position to line up for a favorable field goal. Ultimately, neither panned out.
“Probably the execution you’d love to have back,” Campbell said about the call. “The theory behind what we were trying to do certainly made sense.”
The offense did all it could and amassed 432 total yards, 140 of which came from senior wide receiver Jayden Higgins as did a touchdown. His high yardage came on 10 catches.
This was the sixth time Higgins hauled in over 100 yards as a Cyclone. Higgins was the bright spot of the Iowa State offense but recognized that he wasn’t perfect either.
“We had a bunch of penalties and mistakes that could have been prevented,” Higgins said. “I even dropped a pass that would have been a touchdown.”
Quarterback Rocco Becht threw one of his two touchdowns to Higgins on a 20-yard pass to the back corner of the endzone. The other was the first of freshman Carson Brown’s career.
“[Brown] did a good job of getting into an open space,” Becht said. “Gave him a shot on third and long and he made the rest of the play.”
Brown scored with just over two minutes to go in the game and gave Iowa State a 22-17 lead.
“Unfortunately you can’t celebrate it like you want to with a win,” Campbell said. “But, the reality of it is, what a great play by that kid.”
The moment was celebrated for Brown but may be lost in what happened afterward. Texas Tech drove down the field afterward on what ended up being the game-winning drive.
After Brown scored, Iowa State attempted to go for two in an attempt to bring the lead to three points. Becht rolled to the right but the throw was incomplete.
“That hurts a lot, but you’ve got to live with those decisions,” Becht said. “Flush it away and come back again next week.”
It was a play that needed to happen, considering the decision back in the first quarter to go for it on the fourth-and-two situation.
Had the Cyclones settled for a field goal and made it, the game would have been completely different. The Cyclones would have been up 19-17 on the drive where Brown scored, and if everything played out the same way, the decision to go for two may not have happened.
Even if the decisions were different, there were still sloppy plays that happened.
The offensive line struggled to hold blocks, which forced Becht to scramble and make some errant throws. Becht finished 23-for-39 passing for 299 yards. 24 passing yards were lost on the final, lateral-filled final play.
Of his completions, Becht favored Higgins the most but found senior wide receiver Jaylin Noel for six catches and 44 yards. Gabe Burkle was the top tight end, with four catches that went for 45 yards.
In the locker room after the game, Noel was vocal about not letting this game get the better of the team.
“[He was] just telling us we’ve got to get better,” Higgins said. “Look ourselves in the mirror and take accountability for what happened.”
Though the loss happened, the Cyclones will stick to the ‘one game at a time’ mentality. The loss to Texas Tech is already in the rear-view mirror, and sights are already set on what’s next.
“We’ll be defined by who we are after the season ends,” Campbell said. “The reality of it is how we respond to it and the team we become through it is really what will define the 2024 Iowa State Cyclone football team.”
