Texas Longhorns vs Iowa State Cyclones Game Review

After handling the previously undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers the week before, there was hardly a person that though that the Longhorns could lose to the Iowa State Cyclones. After all, Iowa State had lost big to the Oklahoma Sooners the weekend before and appeared to be a team in trouble offensively.

How could the Longhorns lose? The answer to that question is they could lose and they did end up losing 28-21. Granted, it was only a seven point loss but the game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. Let’s take a look at how this game went, why the Longhorns lost and whether or not they can get things put back together and get to a bowl this season.

Scoring Summary

Scoring started off in the first quarter as Iowa State’s Darius Reynolds caught an 18 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Austen Arnaud to make it 7-0 early. Texas kicker Justin Tucker would add three points in the second quarter on a 23 yard field goal to bring the score to 7-3. The Cyclones would add another touchdown when Alexander Robinson ran one yard into the end zone to make it 14-3 heading into halftime.

Things looked pretty bleak for the Longhorns at that point. Texas would tack on another Tucker field goal, this one 21 yards to make it 14-6 in the third quarter. Iowa State would make it 21-6 after Josh Lenz grabbed a 15-yard Arnaud touchdown pass still in the third quarter.

It looked as if the Longhorns were headed towards another loss. The Cyclones would get their fourth and final touchdown in the fourth quarter as Robinson got his second touchdown of the game, this one on a 20-yard run to put the Cyclones up 28-6.

The Longhorns would start a comeback however and their first touchdown of the game came when quarterback Garrett Gilbert hit John Chiles on a 17 yard touchdown pass and with the two point conversion, the Longhorns made it 28-14.

Texas would add one last touchdown (in their comeback attempt) after Gilbert tossed a nine yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Williams to make it 28-21. The comeback ended there and the Longhorns took another loss on the season.

Stud of the Game

Once again, quarterback Garrett Gilbert had a pretty decent game even though he (along with the rest of the offense) started things off slowly. In the game, Gilbert attempted 57 passes completing 34 of them for 344 yards with two touchdowns and three critical interceptions. He’s learning and growing but unfortunately not fast enough to get his team significant wins.

Dud of the Game

The Texas Longhorn’s defense was thought to be a pretty solid unit coming into this game and they didn’t allow the Cyclones to gain too many yards (they allowed a total of 199 yards rushing and 136 yards passing) but they allowed them to score early and control the ball on the ground thus killing any chance they had for a comeback at the end. You can’t lay this loss entirely on the offense as a result.

The defense should have been able to keep the Cyclones off track in this game. Analysis This loss comes as a shock to many as no one expected the Cyclones to beat the Longhorns this Saturday.

Granted, Iowa State has had a pretty good offense this season but they were just recently shut out by the Oklahoma Sooners and their offense has been suffering as of late. But it didn’t suffer against the Longhorns. Instead, it did just enough to win the game and give Texas another loss.

Gilbert has been slow to grow in his role as starting quarterback this season. He had a good game last week in their win against the Cornhuskers and really stepped up to be a leader then but it appeared as if that leadership had disappeared for three quarters of this game finally appearing when the game was out of hand in the fourth quarter.

His development has been slower than anticipated and at this point in the season, it’s a good idea to keep on letting him learn so that by next season, he will be a much better developed quarterback than he has been this season. He will be a great one, he just has a lot of learning to do.

The Longhorns ground game produced a total of 98 yards with no touchdowns.Their leading rusher was Tre’ Newton with 43 yards total on the ground. That’s not going to cut it against any team no matter how good or how bad they are. Had the Longhorns been able to control the clock and kept the ball out of the Cyclones hands much more then we could be talking about a different outcome. Still, it’s not the end for the Longhorns.

They still have a chance to finish the season on a strong note and get to a bowl game. But any plans of getting the Big 12 Championship locked up are gone now so now it’s time for Texas to develop their players for next season and learn and grow through the rest of this year.

Next Up

Texas will host the Baylor Bears next Saturday at home. A full preview of this game will come at the end of the week.