Iowa State Football: 3 takeaways from heartbreaking loss vs. Iowa

After a bye week, Iowa State football was the feature of College GameDay against Iowa, but came out on the losing end. What’d we learn?

Ugly doesn’t even begin to describe the way this game played out, but the battle for the Cy-Hawk Trophy still didn’t disappoint as Iowa took down Iowa State yet again in the rivalry series.

These two teams usually have solid battles and this was no different as the Hawkeyes went on the road to beat the Cyclones in thrilling fashion.

You can bet Cyclone fans were sick to their stomachs after getting the ball back on a punt with about 1:30 to play in the fourth quarter only to have the return man run into one of his blockers while moving forward to catch the ball, leading to the game-clinching fumble recovery for Iowa.

It was a bit of an anticlimactic finish, but it was still a thriller in Ames that didn’t disappoint, outside of the lengthy weather delay.

What’d we learn from Iowa State’s heart-breaking loss?

3. Need a run game

If you’re going to win games against Power Five teams, you’re going to have to establish the run as it will open up the aerial attack. You can’t be one-dimensional.

Unfortunately, Iowa State is suffering an identity crisis in the backfield through two games as no one has really stepped up. Some hoped it would be freshman Breece Hall but Kene Nwangwu got six carries for 54 yards and looked like the most effective rusher against the Hawkeyes on Saturday evening.

So why is he only getting six carries?

It was a tough play-calling scenario for Matt Campbell as the field conditions after the weather delay weren’t great but the Cyclones were playing from behind a bit which led to 34 pass attempts by Brock Purdy.

Iowa State needs to figure out its backfield situation because 19 rushes for 91 yards isn’t going to cut it.