Oklahoma State rushed for 331 yards in rolling to a 34-8 victory over Iowa State Saturday in Jack Trice Stadium. Iowa State scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but never challenged the Cowboys. I.S.U. coach Paul Rhoads said there were few bright spots in his team’s performance.
Rhoads says they did a good job of kickoff coverage and the kickoff return unit did a good job. “That’s where she ends, from there we were out coached, we were out played on offense and defense and everywhere else that you look,” Rhoads says. He says they gave up three turnovers and didn’t force any turnovers. Rhoads says they have to find a way to score more points in the final two games of the regular season. Rhoads says he thought the team took a step back last week in a loss to Texas A&M, but he was not ready to say that happened in this game.
Rhoads says he will have to thoroughly evaluate everything to see how outmatched they were physically to versus how poorly they played from an execution standpoint. He says they might have just “gotten their tails beat by a very, very good football team.” Rhoads says Oklahoma State has only two losses, and those losses were by only a couple of points, so he will have to evaluate it to see if they took a step back. Rhoads says a lot of things are happening in the conference and they have to continue working to get back on the winning track this week against Colorado.
He says the Big 12 is in “a crazy situation right now” with teams beating each other as there is talent across the league. He says you have to play with game-day and game-length execution to win and that is what this week of preparation will be about. Iowa State is now 5-5 overall on the season, and 2-4 in the Big 12. They host Colorado Saturday in the final home game of the season.