Texas Football: 3 takeaways from clutch win at Iowa State

1. Iowa State falls short in biggest game ever

This was exactly what Matt Campbell and Iowa State wanted. Thanks to Oklahoma State’s upset of West Virginia earlier in the day, the Cyclones controlled their own destiny to reach the conference title game.

Win at Texas and top Kansas State next week at home and a rematch with Oklahoma in December would be waiting. Instead, the Cyclones need a miracle now to reach that game and avoid the sting of being oh-so-close yet again.

It’s been several years, but Iowa State once had a chance to win a division title and play for the Big 12 title. They came up short that time, and are likely going to do that again thanks to this tough loss.

Brock Purdy wasn’t able to continue his incredibly strong start to his career, throwing for just 130 yards and having negative yards rushing for the first time since taking over as starting quarterback. He also threw his first interception since the West Virginia game last month.

Iowa State, which was missing David Montgomery for the first half due to his ejection last week, failed to crack the 100-yard mark as a team. Montgomery finished with just 33 yards, finding the end zone late in the fourth.