By Steve Habel/Senior Editor
AMES, Iowa — The plain and simple truth of the Texas Longhorns’ you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 24-0 loss to Iowa State Saturday in the cool middle-America air at Jack Trice Stadium is that the Longhorns just didn’t show up … or maybe they did and were just dressed as the Invisible Man to celebrate Halloween.
Blame it on Friday’s lengthy, flood-caused flight delay out of Austin or a lack of quality warm-up prior to the game or even the breeze that blew across the Iowa Plains. Whatever the reason, the Texas team that beat Oklahoma (a squad that has since turned into a beast) and then handled Kansas State didn’t make the trip north. This group was impostors, or at least the Longhorns’ backers have to hope so.
Texas didn’t even put up much of a fight [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]against Iowa State, a team that brought two wins in seven games into the contest Saturday.
The Longhorns (3-5, 2-3 in Big 12 Conference play) were dominated in every phase of the game. Texas was outgained, 426-204, by the Cyclones, had the game’s only turnover (a so-bad-it-was-unbelievable interception by quarterback Jerrod Heard), lost the time of possession battle by a whole quarter (37:25-22:35) and didn’t even cross the Iowa State 47-yard line until the game’s final, meaningless, drive.
After two feel-good games, this clunker — even against an Iowa State team that is much better than its record — raises a red flag about the Longhorns’ real progress.
“We thought we were taking steps forward; this was a step back,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said afterward. “It concerns me because it looked like we were building on (something). We felt that we had something going, outside of the early losses we had.”
The Texas running game that almost singlehandedly had produced the past two wins was all but missing in action as the Longhorns had just 119 yards, with its two run-first quarterbacks Tyrone Swoopes (10 carries for 58 yards) and Heard (13 net yards on nine totes) stymied by Iowa State’s eight-in-the-box defense.
When Texas had to throw the ball, especially after the Cyclones (3-5, 2-3 in Big 12 Conference play) forged a 17-0 lead, it just didn’t have the moxie or the firepower to get it done.
“We accomplished all the things that we felt we needed to beat Texas,” Iowa State coach Paul Rhodes said. “We won the turnover margin, we stopped the run, we threw and run against their pressure, we were fantastic in special teams and we started fast.”
Iowa State got all the points it would need on its second possession of the game, driving 66 yards in 11 plays to Mike Warren’s 3-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 lead. The Cyclones added to their advantage on the next-to-last snap of the second quarter when Cole Netten punched through a 28-yard field goal to take a 10-0 lead to the locker room at halftime.
Texas was still in the game until the middle of the third quarter, but any hope of a comeback — at least with the Longhorns’ level of execution — died when Iowa State quarterback Joel Lanning (making his first collegiate start) hit Dondre Daley on a 19-yard touchdown pass to push the Cyclones’ lead to 17-0.
Iowa State added insult to injury late in the game with a final scoring drive that culminated in a 1-yard touchdown run by Joshua Thomas with 2:10 to play.
Swoopes drove the Longhorns from their own 18-yard line to the Iowa State 5 on their last possession in an attempt to avoid the shutout, but couldn’t connect with Marcus Johnson in the end zone on the final snap. Texas gained 77 of its total yards on that final march.
Texas has now lost its three “true” road games this season (the Red River Rivalry in Dallas is considered a neutral field) by a combined score of 112-10 — talk about fear of flying.
The Longhorns will limp back to Austin to lick their wounds and should have a fighting chance to beat Kansas in its next game Nov. 6 — after all, the Jayhawks are the perennial Big 12 doormats and may be the worst team in FBS football.
“We’re going to look back on this game and see that we’re not executing — this is not the team that played against OU and K-State,” Texas safety Dylan Haines said. “We just have to continue to play better and that just comes with preparation. It is a one-game season — this one is done so we just have to prepare for Kansas.”
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