Any thoughts of a hangover from last week’s loss at Baylor were quickly erased with a record-setting first quarter that keyed a 59-7 Iowa State blowout victory over Kansas Saturday night from Jack Trice Stadium.
Quarterback Brock Purdy threw four first-quarter touchdown passes to four different receivers in the opening quarter, which also put him in the Cyclone record books. He opened the scoring with a 36-yard pass to Xavier Hutchinson less than five minutes into the opening quarter. Less than two minutes later, Hall found Charlie Kolar for six yards and the touchdown.
Iowa State’s next two scoring drives only went 44 and 32 yards, respectively, thanks to a KU turnover on downs and blocked field goal returned 51 yards by Greg Eisworth. Purdy found a wide-open Joe Scates over the middle for 44 yards, before Jirehl Brock scored on a seven-yard pass to make it 28-0 with 48 seconds left in the quarter.
Purdy completed 17-of-22 passes for 245 yards and the four touchdowns before being pulled in the third quarter. Hall capped off his night in style with a goal-line plunge – his second score of the game – that came shortly after his 37-yard scamper put him over 100 for the night. Hall finished with 123 on 17 carries, an average of 7.2 per attempt.
One week after just two receivers caught passes in a loss at Baylor, the Cyclones got big production from the position. Hutchinson caught seven of seven targets for 96 yards to go with his score. Tarique Milton snagged two for 31 yards. Scates and Sean Shaw also caught passes.
Tight end Charlie Kolar also recorded 44 receiving yards on three catches.
ISU's offense racked up 564 total yards on 60 plays from scrimmage or an average of 9.4 per play. It was a balanced effort, as it rolled to 290 rushing yards (on 33 carries) and 274 through the air.
While the Jayhawks put together a good day yardage-wise (by the ISU defense’s standards) with 302 (127 passing and 175 rushing), Jon Heacock’s unit stood tall when needed. The Cyclones forced a pair of turnovers and turned those into 14 points.
Kym-Mani King, with his left arm in a cast, intercepted a Jason Bean pass in the first half. Eyioma Uwazurike was credited with the blocked punt that Eisworth returned for big yardage.
True freshman safety Beau Freyler took advantage of extended reps from the early stages of the game, recording a team-high eight tackles. He also was credited with one of the Cyclones’ five quarterback hurries.
Mike Rose, Zach Petersen and Uwazurike each finished with six tackles.
The Cyclones improved to 3-2 on the season and are now 1-1 in conference play heading into a bye week. A road trip to Kansas State is next on the agenda for October 16th.
