Oct 15, 2016; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns running back D’Onta Foreman (33) runs the ball against the Iowa State Cyclones during the second quarter at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports
In Iowa State’s last two games, the fourth quarter has been the Cyclones’ downfall. On Saturday, that downfall came one quarter earlier.
Iowa State (1-6, 0-4 Big 12) held a 6-3 lead over the Texas Longhorns (3-3, 1-2 Big 12) heading into halftime at Austin, but Texas struck quickly on its first drive of the second half when true freshman quarterback Shane Buechele connected with former quarterback Jerrod Heard for a 37-yard touchdown pass.
The Longhorns never looked back on their way to a 27-6 win.
The Cyclones jumped out to a lead late in the first quarter when Cole Netten capped a 12-play, 58-yard drive with a 39-yard field goal. A D’Onta Foreman fumble just a few minutes later set the Cyclones up deep in Texas territory.
The Longhorns defense was able to hold and Iowa State pushed their lead to 6-0 when Netten connected on another field goal, this one from 25-yards, with under a minute left in the first quarter.
Both teams traded punts during the second period before Trent Domingue connected on a 21-yard field goal. Netten’s 50-yard attempt as time expired on the first half sailed wide left for his first miss of the season.
After a lackluster first half, the Longhorns offense was able to get rolling during the third quarter as they accrued 243 yards of total offense compared to just 71 yards by the Cyclones.
In fact, the Longhorns out-gained the Cyclones’ third quarter output on just one play — a 75-yard pass from Buechele to true freshman Devin Duvernay that pushed Texas’ lead to 17-6 halfway through the third period.
They tacked on one more touchdown during the third when Foreman, who finished with 136 yards on 30 carries, rumbled 18-yards to the house. The Longhorns, who entered Saturday’s game with the second-best rushing offense in the Big 12, put up 211 yards on the ground.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was the Longhorns’ passing attack that had the most success against the Iowa State defense. Buechele, a former blue chip recruit, was as good as advertised while throwing for 296 yards on 26-of-38 passing with two touchdowns and an interception.
The Cyclones finished the game with 288 yards of total offense after putting up more than 400 yards in each of the last three games.
Junior quarterback Joel Lanning finished 12-of-22 passing for 140 yards, but sophomore Jacob Park, who finished with 42 yards on 7-of-12 passing, took a majority of the snaps during the late second and early third quarters.
True freshman DeShaunte Jones was one of the offense’s few positives as he caught five passes for 87 yards. Sophomore running back Mike Warren’s 60 rushing yards on 18 carries led the team.
Iowa State is off ext week before hosting the Kansas State Wildcats at Jack Trice Stadium on Oct. 29.
