MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia University football team’s defense had Iowa State on the ropes several times during Saturday night’s game at Milan Puskar Stadium. But nearly every time, the Cyclones were able to slip away from the knockout blow and counter with a big strike of their own.
Three long Iowa State scoring drives, coupled with a handful of crushing WVU offensive mistakes, led to the No. 11 Cyclones pulling away from the Mountaineers for a 28-16 win.
“You’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities when we had the ball down there,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “And we just didn’t.”
ISU (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) salted the game away in the fourth quarter, capping a 10-play, 65-yard drive with a three-yard Carson Hansen touchdown run. WVU (3-3, 2-1 Big 12) forced third down for ISU three times on that drive. The Mountaineers couldn’t get off the field on any of those three plays.
On the last third down of the drive, the WVU defense forced ISU quarterback Rocco Becht to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone. But corner Ayden Garnes was called for defensive holding, giving the Cyclones first and goal at the WVU 3. Hansen scored on the next play.
On the ensuing drive, WVU quarterback Garrett Greene threw his second interception of the game, giving Iowa State the ball back on the Mountaineer 33. Iowa State scored its final touchdown on the next drive, a 10-play campaign that saw the Cyclones convert two third downs and a fourth down.
West Virginia’s defense struggled to get off the field at several points during the game. The Cyclones were 9 of 14 on third down and 2 for 2 on fourth down for the game. ISU took a lead it would never relinquish in the second quarter, gobbling up 8 minutes, 8 seconds of game clock on a 17-play, 91-yard drive capped by an 11-yard Hansen touchdown run.
On that drive, Iowa State converted three third downs, including a third and 10 at the Iowa State 31, where quarterback Rocco Becht found Jayden Higgins for an 18-yard gain.
“On those long drives, not only do you get fatigued on defense, but also your offense gets cold,” Brown said. “So that was definitely a factor in the game.”
Linebacker Josiah Trotter said those long drives were not only physically taxing, but emotionally frustrating.
“You’ve just got to find a way,” Trotter said. “You just have to bow up at some point and try to hold them to field goals. That’s the hard part on those long drives, trying to figure out how to stop them, especially when we got to those third downs.
“We just have to go back to work and do a better job of getting them off the field,” he added.
At the game’s onset, it looked like WVU could have a good night against an Iowa State defense that entered Saturday’s game ranked sixth nationally in points allowed and 13th nationally in yards allowed. The Mountaineers scored a touchdown on their opening drive, ending a 14-play, 75-yard drive with an 8-yard Jahiem White scoring run.
But outside of a 43-yard Michael Hayes field goal at the end of the first, WVU’s offense went quiet.
There were opportunities for the Mountaineers in the game, but offensive errors proved costly. It initially looked like WVU converted a third and 3 at the Iowa State 18 at the start of the second quarter, but an official’s review ruled it an incomplete pass. Hayes missed a 36-yard field goal wide left to end the drive.
“I think momentum is real,” Brown said. “That hurt for sure. It hurt that we didn’t convert and it hurt that we missed the field goal.”
On the ensuing drive, Becht took advantage of a blown WVU coverage to hit Jaylin Noel in stride for a 60-yard touchdown for Iowa State’s first touchdown and a 7-7 tie. Brown said the coverage issue came when, using the helmet communication, half the defense got one call and the other half got another call, which caused confusion.
WVU had a chance to take the lead in the third quarter down 14-10 after the defense, which did a better job of getting to Becht than any other team on the ISU schedule so far, forced the Cyclones to punt. WVU was able to drive from its 14 to Iowa State’s 29, but Greene was intercepted by Jamison Patton to kill the drive. ISU’s next drive ended with Hansen’s second touchdown.
Brown said he thought pass interference should have been called on the first interception, but Greene’s second was just a bad decision.
“I was trying to do too much,” Greene said of his second pick. “That’s my fault.”
Hansen finished the game with 96 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries. Becht – whose father, former WVU tight end Anthony Becht, was honored Saturday night for his induction into the WVU Hall of Fame – finished the game with 265 yards and a touchdown on 18-of-26 passing.
Greene finished with 206 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions on 18-of-32 passing, while also leading the Mountaineers with 87 rushing yards on 10 carries.
Greene said it was a disappointed locker room in the aftermath of WVU’s loss, but another tough team is coming next Saturday in Kansas State, so there’s little time to sulk.
“We’ll watch it (Sunday), and correct it on Monday,” he said. “And we’ll get ready for Kansas State. It’s another great opportunity and another really good team coming to town.”
— Story by Derek Redd
