This season, the ISU defense put in a 3-4 scheme — something it hoped would slow the fast-paced offenses the Cyclones commonly face in the Big 12 conference.

And while it has worked in stretches so far, criticism surfaced after the Cyclones’ 66-31 loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. Defensive coordinator Wally Burnham didn’t take lightly to the criticism and made that very clear when addressing reporters Tuesday evening.

“I don’t think it’s the 3-4 defense,” Burnham said. “I think it’s the best thing we can be in and I know some of you guys are questioning it from what I hear on Sunday, but you guys need to come up and tell me something that’s better.

“You all know so much about football. Come and tell me something. Draw me up a game plan. I’ll take you up to the office now and we’ll sit down and you can draw me up a game plan for TCU if you can come up with something better.”

But after watching the Cyclones’ last game, it’s easy to see where the criticism originated. What isn’t completely clear is how the blame should be distributed between the scheme itself and the Cyclones’ execution of it.

Texas Tech produced a school-record 776 yards of total offense Saturday, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes passed for 428 yards and five touchdowns.

But to be fair, this was perhaps the first true test of the new scheme this season. While it’s easy to put blame on the defensive calls, Burnham offered a much simpler explanation.

“We didn’t play hard enough. It’s very simple why we got so much yardage and so much points scored on us,” Burnham said. “We didn’t play hard enough or good enough. We didn’t tackle good enough, we didn’t defend the deep pass enough. It’s not a secret what happened.”

ISU coach Paul Rhoads agreed with Burnham, saying he believes that the pieces are in place for the scheme to do what it is designed to accomplish.

“We’re deployed fine to defend it,” Rhoads said. “We’ve got to do a better job of executing and performing to what the scheme allows us to do. There were some things that Texas Tech did Saturday that every offense is going to do every different week.”

The ISU defense will get another chance against another true air raid offense this weekend when Iowa State takes on No. 3 Texas Christian. The Horned Frogs average 51 points per game, the third highest in the country.

And when the Cyclones take the field Saturday, ISU fans can expect Burnham will have his defense lined up in the 3-4 formation. But they can also expect TCU to bring as much speed, if not more, than the Red Raiders did last week.

“We didn’t need a wake-up call, but there is a realization of what’s ahead in the next seven games of conference play,” Rhoads said. “If we don’t adjust to it, we’ll see more outcomes like we did.”