Even when the Cyclones and Jirehl Brock were able to find some room in the ground game Saturday afternoon, it wasn’t pretty. Iowa State was limited to just 66 net yards on 27 carries in a 31-24 loss to Baylor.
More than half of that total came on a 37-yard run from Brock which resulted in a fumble into the end zone and the junior running back falling on it for a touchdown.
“I’d describe it as ‘blessed’, I guess,” said Brock of the sequence midway through the fourth quarter that got the Cyclones back to within 10. “It’s not always that the ball bounces right back to you when that happens. That’s on me. I can’t have that mistake. I’ve got to finish that run and get to the end zone without the suspense it being a fumble or touchdown.”
The rest of ISU’s body of work on the ground against the Big 12’s defending champs wasn’t pretty. Subtracting Brock’s run, it managed just 29 yards on 26 carries. Deon Silas rushed once for six yards. Dekkers rushed 11 times for 11 yards but was sacked four times for a combined negative-25 yards.
Known as a defense particularly strong up the middle, the Bears were as advertised there, making things difficult on a Cyclone offensive line that’s most experienced at the center and guard positions.
“They’re really good inside,” Brock said. “They have a really good scheme of how to try and force you back inside to their big guys. We were doing everything I felt that we could. There were some times where a big run would break but they did a really good job scheme-wise of limiting us in the run game.”
It wasn’t just the presence of Siaki Ika, Dillon Doyle and Matt Jones inside that made things difficult on the Cyclones. Trailing for much of the game also led to ISU becoming a one-dimensional offense.
“I don’t even think that’s a real statement, to be honest,” said head coach Matt Campbell when asked about the struggles in the run game. “It’s perception. The (reality) of it is we’re behind, so we’re trying to catch up in the football game. When you’re playing from behind a little bit, you’re leaning on the passing game to get you going.
“The reality of that is, even handing the ball off a little bit, there’s a couple three-and-outs, so the stats make it look different than the reality of it. It was more a flow of the game than it is actual, man, did they have trouble rushing it or not. The flow of the game didn’t allow a rushing game to really get going.”
With added weight on his shoulders, quarterback Hunter Dekkers struggled at times to lead the offense, particularly in the third quarter. In total, the redshirt sophomore completed 23-of-36 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns. He was sacked four times and pressured on multiple occasions.
Even with all of the first half woes, the Cyclones still had an opportunity to take the lead coming out of the intermission, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Dekkers’ interception on the second play of the third quarter was a crucial one. He followed up with another early in the fourth, which was sandwiched around two Tyler Perkins punts, that led to a Baylor scoring drive and 31-14 lead.
“The word’s ‘momentum’,” Campbell said. “We know this is a game of momentum. You always felt like we were fighting from behind to gain it. What I love about this group, and I love this group, this group’s got a chance to do some special things, is they kept playing and fighting and competing.
“There’s a sequence in the third quarter that we sputtered, for whatever reason. We’ll have to go look back at that. We’re playing a little bit into their hands because we’re playing game that’s probably more conducive to their rhythm than ours. You’re playing catchup most of the day and that’s hard.”
Eight different Cyclones caught passes in the game, including grad transfer Dimitri Stanley who caught a 24-yard touchdown on his way to four for 55.
“They’re full of athletes,” said Stanley. “They have a really athletic team. Definitely, structurally sound. They just do a lot of things right. Whenever you have a good team and good defensive team like that, it’s hard to move the ball. I feel like we were getting what we wanted, but definitely some plays that we want back.”
