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Will Iowa State Football score enough to compete against the Big 12 teams?

Will Iowa State Football score enough to compete against the Big 12 teams?

Vaseline 1 month ago

How is it possible that an Iowa football team, which is undefeated in four games, still leaves much to be desired early in the game?

It hasn’t been a slow start to the season for the record books, but the Cyclones certainly looked dazed 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 their Big 12 opener, but it took some time for the Cyclones to separate themselves from their opponent.

Kyle Konrardy put Iowa State on top with a field goal nearly eight minutes into the first quarter. The scoring stopped after that and it took until the final three minutes of the third quarter for the Cyclones to find the end zone.

More: Hines: Matt Campbell becomes winningest coach in Iowa State football history with win over Houston

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,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said after the win over Houston. “We moved the ball with pretty good consistency. It just felt like you were inches short of a first down or just a hair away from the big play.

In three of the four games (excluding the big win over Arkansas State), Iowa State has often struggled to score points in the opening quarters of its games.

Des Moines Register columnist Travis Hines predicted 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.”

More: Iowa State Football earns its first Big 12 win of 2024 with victory over Houston

That turned out to be true, but the final score was much lower: 21-3. The Cyclones scored just 38 seconds into the game, but then grew sluggish and didn’t score another touchdown until the final minute of the second quarter.

Iowa State faced Iowa the following week and again started slowly. The Cyclones scored no points in the first two quarters before piling up 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 the way 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 with conversions in third place and we took care of the football.

“The things when you talk about playing on the road, how do you achieve success, those are the things we talk about, and it was great to see how our kids did.”

But games can’t be won without putting points on the board, and the Cyclones will need to find the end zone faster against the majority of their Big 12 opponents.

More: Iowa State Football: Jayden Higgins’ six straight TD catches set Cyclones record

Just look at Saturday’s conference.

Kansas State scored 21 points in the first half against Oklahoma State, which scored 13 in the first two quarters. TCU defeated 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 at halftime. Colorado scored 27 points in the first two frames and UCF scored 14 points in that time.

Can Iowa’s defense limit the production of these offenses? Yes.

But opponents will score touchdowns, and Iowa State — most likely — won’t do well if it’s always playing catch-up. With the talent level and experience on offense, Iowa State should be able to score early and consistently.

Give fans all of Jayden Higgins’ touchdowns. Have Abu Sama and Jaylon Jackson go on explosive runs of 50 to 70 yards. Put all of Jontez Williams and Jeremiah Cooper’s interceptions on display like it was Saturday.

But Iowa State football could sit back and relax a bit if those things happen in the first half.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at [email protected] or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.