Yeah, they were tongue-in-cheek. The numbers bare this out, but running the ball in general is worse than passing, especially repeatedly on 1st & 10, and 2nd & Long. I don't have the exact data splits in front of me for Iowa State's rushing and passing rates in those situations in front of me, but do have some data to use.
Last year, Iowa State finished 15th in EPA(expected points added)/rush and 25th in EPA/pass according to
https://cfb-graphs.com/leaderboard20.html
However, Iowa State had nearly double the EPA on passes than rushes, 0.151 to .087. This doesn't mean that Iowa State should only throw the ball, or anything close to that. Breece Hall is clearly a difference maker with the ball in his hands. But, on a play-by-play basis, Iowa State was better off throwing the football. When you look at early down splits, Iowa State falls to .007 EPA/rush vs .126 EPA/pass. They also rank in the top third of running on early downs, doing so 58% of the time.
All of this is to say that I believe that Iowa State could stand to be more aggressive on offense, especially on early downs. This isn't special to Iowa State, either, as most teams would likely benefit from passing more on 1st and 2nd downs. And before someone brings up play action, studies have shown repeatedly that play action success has nothing to do with rushing attempts or success rushing the ball.
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2018/rushing-success-and-play-action-passing