For a sliver of time it appeared as if Hilton Magic zigzagged its way through the herds of tailgaters and into Jack Trice Stadium. It was a Thursday night football game, how couldn’t it have?

But as quickly as it entered Jack Trice, it packed up and left when JaQuan Bailey somersaulted his way to a 15-yard penalty on Texas’ first drive of the game.

If a game could be summed up in the first five minutes of a game, it certainly happened tonight. Bailey and the Cyclones’ defense had set themselves up for a big third and nine with only three plays after the Texas defense forced an Iowa State punt.

“Obviously it’s unfortunate, but we’ll go back and work,” coach Matt Campbell said. “It’s my responsibility, and we’ll continue to grind and move forward.”

Bailey rushed in as Texas quarterback Shane Buechele dropped back into the pocket. Bailey rumbled toward him, but before he could evade the defensive end, Buechele was hit and forced a fumble – a fumble that Texas recovered.

That’s when Bailey shot the Iowa State defense in the foot with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The six-foot-five, 268-pound sophomore tumbled into a somersault and landed in a sniper position scoped in on the Texas sideline.

Although an impressive display of his athletic ability, the referee’s disagreed and tagged Bailey with a 15-yard penalty, resulting in a first down, not a Texas punt.

From then on, it was Iowa State that hooked the Cyclones, not Texas. It wasn’t as simple as the usual penalties haunting a team, but rather multiple issues that sunk the Cyclones to a 2-2 (0-1 Big 12) in a 17-7 loss to Texas.

Offensive imbalance

David Montgomery, the Iowa State running back that has drawn comparisons to the likes of Kareem Hunt and arguably the player that has sparked Iowa State to two early wins, was handed the ball only nine times for 34 yards.

To win football games, a balanced attack is critical and Iowa State failed in that area of the game when Montgomery and Mike Warren rushed for a combined total of 10 attempts. Iowa State threw the ball 49 times, compared to those 10 rushed. Jacob Park added five of his own rushes for a negative 25 yards.

After the game, Campbell hinted that Iowa State had a balanced attack ready, but the Texas defense sniffed it out and halted the run game. Balanced plan or not, at a ratio like that it will be hard to win any more games.

“I think we tried [to utilize Montgomery more],” Campbell said. “I thought they did a good job trying to take him out of the game early and it’s a situation for us where we’ve got to continue to find ways to get him the ball.”

It was evident from Jacob Park’s first pass that the redshirt junior wasn’t himself. His first pass fell incomplete to Trever Ryen, only to be sacked two plays later forcing a three-and-out.

“I’ll give Texas credit,” Campbell said. “I thought at the end of it they played a good football game and I thought our kids played really hard.”

Park has ripped through defenses all season long, putting up over 40 points in every game. That changed tonight, going 24 to 48 for 246 passing yards.

By the end of the game, the offense only accumulated 256 yards, a large portion of which came in the second half. The first half is a half that should be forgotten by the offense, but a reminder at how tough the Big 12 will be.

To Park’s credit, he did have to deal with a Texas defense that continuously pressured him, sacking him four times. In Iowa State’s first three games, the offensive line had only allowed one sack. In the first quarter alone, Texas doubled that number.

Errant plays

Besides Bailey’s penalty, Park’s three interceptions were the most notable plays that cost the Cyclones.

“In some critical moments we lost our poise and I’ll give Texas credit, I look at ourselves and our football team and there’s a lot of areas of great improvement,” Campbell said. “But it’s that poise in critical situations that really cost us tonight.”

Two of his interceptions led to points, one being a touchdown and the other being a field goal. The Texas offense was also able to benefit on a Brian Peavy penalty.

Buechele took off to scramble, only to get greeted by a questionable late hit from Peavy. That same drive Texas went down to score a 22-yard touchdown to go ahead by two scores.

“They were able to just get a good pass rush,” senior Allen Lazard said. “They were dropping a lot of guys too and when you can drop eight and rush three and get good pressure, it’s going to be very hard to be successful as an offense.”

However, it wasn’t just Iowa State that shot themselves in the foot. Texas had ten penalties for 76 yards. But it was most notably the times that Texas hooked themselves, only to have the play overturned. 

Defense shows hope

Despite losing the game and allowing six straight third down conversions at one point, the Iowa State defense showed that it’s a legitimate threat in the Big 12.

They allowed 312 yards to an offense that went into Memorial Coliseum and took USC to overtime two weeks ago and the Cyclones defense kept them at 17 points. 

There was also the defensive front seven that has continued to shine going up against a very talented Texas offensive line. Joel Lanning also recorded a team-high of 20 tackles.

“It was great and we kept our faith and just kept moving forward,” redshirt senior Kamari Cotton-Moya said.