How does an Iowa State football squad, undefeated through four games, still leave a lot to be desired early on in games?
It’s been a not-so-slow start to the season in the record books, but the Cyclones certainly looked sedated in the opening quarters of three of their first four games. It was more of the same against Houston on Saturday.
Iowa State shut out the Cougars, 20-0, in its Big 12 opener but it took some time before the Cyclones separated themselves from their opponent.
Kyle Konrardy put Iowa State on the board first with a field goal nearly eight minutes into the first quarter. Then the scoring stalled, and it took until the final three minutes of the third quarter for the Cyclones to find the endzone.
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Even Iowa State’s second touchdown didn’t come until there were six minutes left in the fourth.
“I feel like we weren’t far off in the first half,” said Iowa State coach Matt Campbell following the win over Houston. “We moved the ball with pretty good consistency. It just felt like you were an inch short of a first down or you were a hair off on a block to springing the big play.”
Through three of four games – the big win over Arkansas State excluded – Iowa State has struggled to put up points often in the early quarters of its games.
Des Moines Register columnist Travis Hines predicted that Iowa State would beat North Dakota, 49-7, in the season opener. As he put it: “The Cyclones have the talent and experience to make quick work of their visitors.”
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That proved true, except that the final score was much lower – 21-3. The Cyclones scored just 38 seconds into the game, but then turned languid, not scoring another touchdown until the final minute of the second quarter.
Iowa State faced Iowa the following week and, again, started slow. The Cyclones scored no points in the first two quarters before piling on 14 points in the third and six more in the fourth.
This isn’t to say that Iowa State didn’t play well or show glimpses of greatness during those stretches. There were a lot of things to like about how the Cyclones performed against Houston.
“We had the ability to put ourselves in really good third-down situations (9-of-17),” Campbell said. “Another great night on third down conversions and we took care of the football.
“The things when you talk about playing on the road, how do you have success, those are the things we talk about, and it was great to see our kids do it.”
But games are unwinnable without putting points on the board, and the Cyclones will need to find the end zone sooner against the majority of their Big 12 opponents.
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Just look across the conference on Satuday.
Kansas State scored 21 points in the first half against Oklahoma State, which scored 13 in the first two quarters. TCU beat Kansas after both teams scored 17 or more points in the first half. BYU scored 31 points between the first and second quarters, and Baylor had 14 points by halftime. Colorado picked up 27 points in the opening two frames and UCF scored 14 in that time.
Could Iowa State’s defense limit the production of those offenses? Yes.
But opponents are going to score touchdowns, and Iowa State will – most likely – not fare well if it’s always playing catch up. With the talent level and experience on offense, Iowa State should be able to score early on and consistently.
Give fans all the Jayden Higgins’ touchdowns. Let Abu Sama and Jaylon Jackson go off on explosive 50- to 70-yard runs. Put all the Jontez Williams and Jeremiah Cooper interceptions on display like they were Saturday.
But Iowa State football could sit back and relax a bit if those things came in the first half moving forward.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
