BOULDER, Colo. — Iowa State football’s season sank to a new low in the mile-high air.
The Cyclones, undefeated and knocking on the door of the top-10 just two weeks ago, now find themselves heading into a bye week, followed by the most difficult stretch of the schedule, just as their grip on the season is slipping.
Iowa State is in trouble. The Cyclones aren’t dead, no, but, after Saturday’s 24-17 loss to Colorado, they are in real, no-good, no-fun trouble.
A 5-0 start to the season, with three wins over Power 4 opponents, now seems beside the point as the Cyclones have skidded to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12 after back-to-back losses. And not the kind of losses you can explain away or find some sort of solace in. Just real, no-good, no-fun losses, first at Cincinnati and now at Folsom Field to the Buffaloes.
It wasn’t a loss like last week to the Bearcats, who dominated the line of scrimmage and simply overwhelmed the Cyclones at times. No, this was a loss of mistakes by the Cyclones.
Penalties and blown coverages. Errant throws and dropped passes. Third-down struggles and shaky special teams. An interception near the goal-line and a fourth-down failure.
It was really just the type of game a narrow favorite cannot afford to play on the road to a struggling-but-capable team like Colorado. The Buffs came into the day 0-3 in the Big 12, and perhaps the most important ingredient for a team like that in an upset bid is hope, something Iowa State provided by stumbling along for much of the game.
When Rocco Becht threw the ball to Colorado’s Tawfiq Byard instead of Ben Brahmer – who was being pulled down to the ground by a Colorado defensive back a few yards behind the pick – it was a pretty solid encapsulation of how Iowa State just could not create its own luck or opportunities. You could say the same thing about not converting a fourth-and-short on their own 19 late in the fourth quarter.
Take your pick.
Although neither pack quite the visual punch of seeing Carson Rhodes, a 6-foot-8, 310-pound offensive lineman, handling kickoff duties for Iowa State because its third-string kicker, Chase Smith, was injured during the game.
Kind of gives you a pretty good idea of how things are going when your kicker could credibly go as Andre the Giant for Halloween in a couple weeks.
It didn’t matter that Abu Sama rushed for 177 yards or that the Cyclones’ front-seven looked markedly improved from last week. It mattered not that Iowa State out-gained and registered more first downs than Colorado.
The only thing that counts is that the Cyclones didn’t do enough to avoid falling to 2-2 in the Big 12.
Now Iowa State heads into an idle week with uneasy minds.
The Cyclones return for a trio of games vs. No. 18 BYU, vs. No. 23 Arizona State and at TCU, where Iowa State has won once in its last six attempts.
A single stumble would almost certainly knock Iowa State out of conference title contention. But the loss to Colorado means the Cyclones might already be drawing dead. There’s a crowd ahead of them in the Big 12 standings, and it’s going to take help if Iowa State is going to make a second-straight Big 12 championship game.
Iowa State found itself in a similar situation last year after November losses to Texas Tech and Kansas, but that required the battered Cyclones to manage just three final regular season games. These Cyclones still have five, and these next three could see them play well and still lose to strong teams.
Iowa State coach Matt Campbell is fond of saying that the Cyclones always have to climb the rough side of the mountain.
This trip to the Rockies made that ascent all the more difficult. The road, though, may be impassable, and the summit, just perhaps, may already be out of reach.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football losing its grip on 2025 season in loss vs Colorado | Hines
Reporting by Travis Hines, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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