Texas has lost a lot of bad games recently. Ask Texas fans, or even better, ask fans of any other Big 12 team. They’ll be happy to either lament or rejoice.
Things were looking up for the Texas Longhorns, and then they had their worst loss in years by far
Texas hasn’t been good recently. But it hasn’t been “get demolished by Iowa State” bad ever, really.
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But Saturday's showing, a 24-0 beatdown in which the Longhorns were completely dominated in every facet of the game by the lowly Iowa State Cyclones, might take the cake for the worst. It was Texas' first shutout against an unranked opponent since losing 6-0 to TCU in 1961. It was the first time Iowa State had ever held Texas below 17 points, let alone shut the Longhorns out, and only the second time it's beaten Texas in 13 tries.
The early Texas losses were at least somewhat explainable, like being blown out by elite Notre Dame and TCU teams. Fine, those teams are among the best in the nation. The Longhorns lost by three to Oklahoma State thanks to a late punting blunder. Fine, Oklahoma State is really good and there was a late punting blunder. They lost by one to Cal, thanks to a late missed extra point. Fine! That’s an awful, random way to lose! And Cal isn’t bad!
But after a shocking Red River Shootout upset over Oklahoma and a comfortable win over Kansas State, it seemed Texas had things turned around.
On Saturday, we learned that might not be the case. Iowa State is bad, and there was nothing fluky or weird about the win. The Cyclones just dominated for 60 minutes on both sides of the ball.
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Iowa State came into the game 2-5, with wins over FCS Northern Iowa and should-probably-be-FCS Kansas. The offense was bad, so bad that head coach Paul Rhoads just fired offensive coordinator Mark Mangino and replaced his quarterback. The defense was even worse! The Cyclones’ bad offense abused the Longhorns with a ground game that appeared unstoppable and the Cyclones’ worse defense completely eviscerated the Longhorns’ hapless attack.
It wasn’t just the result of a few big plays or flukes. Iowa State’s longest play was only 22 measly yards. The Cyclones just battered Texas play after play after play, going up and down the field with ease. They rushed 54 times for 238 yards, no attempt going for more than 20. That’s consistently getting 5-plus yards a carry, over and over again.
Iowa State went 15-for-24 on third downs. Even the highest-tempo, highest-octane, most yardage-crazy offenses in college football don’t convert 15 third downs in a game. Baylor has never done it under Art Briles. Oregon has never done it under Mark Helfrich or Chip Kelly. Iowa State just kept getting itself to third-and-short, and Texas just didn’t have a chance.
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But yeah, Iowa State’s defense was worse. The Cyclones entered the game ranked 55th in the nation in offensive S&P+ and 82nd in defensive S&P+. The Cyclones allowed 33.9 points per game coming in, not cracking the top 100 in college football.
The Longhorns only crossed the 50-yard line three times. One instance was on a drive that got to the opposing 47 before Jerrod Heard threw a pick (the Longhorns will "evaluate" the QB position). Another saw Texas get to the Iowa State 49 before a sack immediately brought offense back into its own territory. And the Longhorns gained 77 yards on a garbage time drive that ended with the clock expiring.
Even including that last drive, Texas’ offense was horrendous. The Longhorns got just 204 yards on 54 plays, a pathetic 3.8 yards per play. Remember that Iowa State ran 54 times and gained 238 yards.
But if we subtract that final garbage time drive, Texas had just 124 yards on 44 plays, which is just 2.8 yards per play. You need to call special companies to put on special equipment to dispose of waste this toxic.
As Charlie Strong said after the game, the problems for Texas could be found everywhere during the game.
It’s not on the quarterback position. It’s on all of them. There’s breakdowns at every position. We’ve got to get better across the board.
There is a difference between the losses Texas and its fans have considered embarrassing and Saturday’s loss. At least the majority of those losses have come to pretty good teams. Of the 25 losses in the past five seasons, 19 have come against ranked opponents and the other six came against teams that finished with winning records. Texas had not lost to a team that finished the season with a losing record since a 28-21 loss to ... a 5-7 Iowa State team in 2010.
This Iowa State team probably isn’t good enough to go 5-7 and it beat Texas much more viciously than that 5-7 team beat Texas. Best case scenario, this was an egg of historic proportions. Worst case scenario, Texas is a team bad enough to get washed by bad teams.
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