The Iowa State offense connected on all cylinders last Saturday against Iowa, but 41 points wasn’t enough to claim the Cy-Hawk trophy.

The number of points needed to win was 45 as Iowa defeated Iowa State 44-41 in overtime.

Iowa State ended the first half down 14-10, but the offense came alive in the second half, scoring 14 points each in the third and fourth quarter.

“I think we realize that the game was close at halftime and all we needed to do was continue to show our dominance,” said senior wide receiver Allen Lazard. “The second half was a brand-new ball game for our team.”

Starting near the end of the third quarter, the Cyclones went on a run of 21 unanswered points. The first touchdown came from Lazard, his second touchdown of the game.

Then, with seconds left in the third, redshirt junior quarterback Jacob Park found a wide-open Hakeem Butler for a 30-yard touchdown. Afterword’s, David Montgomery wanted to be part of the scoring, so he added a seven-yard touchdown run.

Park was running the offense the way coach Matt Campbell knew he could run it as a starting quarterback this season.

“I think offensively, you want to be able to take advantage of what they give you,” Campbell said. “I thought we were able to do that for the most part.”

Park went 25-for-46 throwing 347 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. He was connecting with all of his receivers.

He threw to eight different receivers on Saturday and four of them had at least four receptions. Lazard led the group with six receptions for 23 yards and two touchdowns.

“Me and Jacob already have a connection,” Butler said after two touchdowns on Saturday. “Just from practice and things like that. We already knew, he didn’t have to look at me or say anything to me, we already knew it was happening.”

Not only did Park have the passing attack going throughout the game, he had a running back that was able to ease the burden whenever Park decided not to throw the ball.

Montgomery had 20 carries for 112 rushing yards and one touchdown. He found the holes necessary to earn some key first downs to continue drives and put points on the board for the Cyclones.

Park had an easy description of Montgomery after the game.

“David [Montgomery] is just a monster,” Park said. “We don’t think he’s human.”

Overall, the offense looks stronger than ever with five to six wide receivers for Park to throw to at any given time and a running back that’s been finding holes and taking advantage of defensive coverages.

Altogether, Iowa State had 467 total offensive yards.

The offense also had help from redshirt senior kicker Garrett Owens who was perfect not only from extra points, but field goals as well. He kicked five extra points and two field goals on Saturday.

The first field goal was a 24-yarder in the second quarter. The other came in overtime when Owens put a 30-yarder through the uprights to give Iowa State a chance to win.

The older Cyclone players agreed that this loss would hurt more because it’s an in-state rival and Iowa State had Iowa in their grasp, but just couldn’t hold on.

“I look at every game the same,” Butler said. “It’s all a game. You can’t get too high with it, too low with it. We just got to take it as it comes. When we go into next weekend, it’s a new game, it’s a new day.

“We don’t even think about Iowa anymore.”