I’ll be honest — there’s not a ton of “look on the bright side” moments for Iowa State from the Saturday night debacle in Manhattan, Kansas. 

It was a rivalry game the Cyclones had won last year in dramatic fashion, and they seemed primed to start a winning streak as another sign of program progress with a shot at a possible Alamo Bowl return on the line.

Instead, the Cyclones were rough — sloppy on offense, unable to capitalize on mistakes from Kansas State and worn down by the Wildcats’ rush attack. This isn’t something we’ve gotten used to seeing from Matt Campbell’s crew and certainly not in the past two seasons in which the Cyclones have won games by playing in the margins and not making mistakes.

Kansas State wasn’t nearly mistake-free, either. The Wildcats had two quick third quarter turnovers from Skylar Thompson and missed multiple opportunities to create turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. But what the Wildcats did do was bounce back from their mistakes. 

It’s weird to point that out because it’s been what Iowa State has done with success all year long — rebounding from mistakes and deficits to make games close or pull out victories. It happened against Baylor, against Oklahoma and against Oklahoma State. The Cyclones went down double digits and came back to either take the lead or tie each of these games, and they did it against Kansas State too — trailing 14-0 midway through the second quarter before taking a 17-14 lead in the third quarter.

But then, the Cyclones gave way to a wave of Kansas State run plays and highlighted what a strange, strange year it’s been covering this football team. Nothing about this team makes a lick of sense — I have the feeling Campbell knows it, and it’s obviously frustrating him. In the postgame press conference, he seemed pretty upset about the way his team got pushed around.

“The team that had the ability to be the most physical for the longest was going to win the game,” Campbell said. “And they certainly were.”

I don’t blame him. 

So after a disaster of a football game, what is there for the Cyclones to look forward to? After all, this was supposed to be the season in which the Cyclones made a push for the Big 12 Championship with no clear No. 2 in the conference hierarchy to Oklahoma. Well, that No. 2 is now Baylor — and the Cyclones are in a four-way tie for third in a weak year for the league. 

However, any time Iowa State is going to a bowl game is historically a good season. The Cyclones are headed to a bowl for the third-straight season (hello, Liberty and Texas Bowls), something only done one other time in the school’s history — the final three years of the Earle Bruce era in the mid-to-late ’70s. 

Iowa State is in a nearly unparalleled era of success. 

So no, this is definitely not a big sign for concern. I doubt the bowl game performance will be so scattered, and Iowa State has been a record-breaking offense this season, so overreacting to one dud would be silly.

But when you put in the Cyclones’ under-par performance against Kansas with the loss to the ‘Cats, it wouldn’t be surprising if the end to this season left a bit of a sour taste in the mouths of some Iowa State fans.