Texas beats Iowa State 17-7 in Ames, holding Cyclones to 10 yards rushing

The Texas Longhorns improved to 2-2 on the season with their 17-7 victory over the Iowa State Cyclones on Thursday night at Jack Trice Stadium. The victory marks the first Longhorns win in Ames since 2013 — the Cyclones beat Texas 24-0 in 2015.

Texas scored two touchdowns in the first half to lead 14-0, a score which held for most of the third quarter. But after a shanked 17-yard punt, Iowa State got to take over from the Texas 28-yard line. The Cyclones capitalized with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Park, who rebounded from two first half interceptions.

On Iowa State’s next possession though, Park threw his third interception of the night, and the Longhorns were then able to score a 49-yard field goal to take a comfortable 10-point lead. That held for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately for Iowa State’s momentum, Texas got a couple of lucky breaks on its possession after ISU’s third-quarter touchdown — on the kickoff return, Longhorn returner Armanti Foreman appeared to have fumbled which was recovered by ISU, but the refs called his knee down. Then on the same drive, a tipped Shane Buechele pass was returned for a touchdown, but after review, it was ruled an incomplete forward pass. Both of those were the correct call.

After Texas took its 10-point lead, the defense thwarted the Cyclones’ offense to hang on and seal the victory.

Here’s Burnt Orange Nation on the Horns’ defensive performance:

The Texas secondary spent most of that time in the right spot as rising juniors DeShon Elliott and Kris Boyd both secured interceptions and Park went 13-of-26 passing and averaged only four yards per attempt. Elliott secured another in the second half to boost his total to four on the season and four in the last two games.

Iowa State running back David Montgomery, arguably the second best player for the home team offensively, was successful in averaging 5.2 yards per carry in the first half, but only received six. In that regard, Orlando was likely happy with the play calling by the Cyclones, which afford his defense a chance to tee off on the shaky quarterback.

In the second half, things didn’t improve for the Cyclones, as the Longhorns gave up only 256 yards and seven points against a short field following a shank by punter Michael Dickson. The Australian was otherwise excellent on the evening, as was the Texas defense.

This was a bit of an interesting homecoming for Texas head coach Tom Herman — in 2010, when he was Iowa State’s offensive coordinator, the Cyclones upset Mack Brown’s Horns 28-21. But there wasn’t much magic for Iowa State tonight, and Parks’ interceptions paired with the Cyclones lack of a pass rush let Buechele and the Longhorns’ offense get the victory.

The Longhorns now jump to 2-2 on the season, leaving Iowa State with the same record. Next up for Texas is the bulk of its Big 12 schedule, featuring a home game against Kansas State before the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma. The stretch continues with a home game against No. 5 Oklahoma State, and back-to-back road trips to Baylor and No. 9 TCU. Texas still has a long way to go this season, but a 2-2 start while getting its first win in Ames since 2013 isn’t bad at all.

For Matt Campbell’s Year 2 Iowa State squad, there’s still some building to do, and it’ll take some time. Beating good teams at home is where he wants his program to be headed. When his team starts doing this again, his Cyclones program will begin to trend in the right direction.