Iowa State Football: 3 takeaways from disappointing loss to Iowa

Matt Campbell was looking to beat Iowa for the first time as Iowa State football coach and Saturday afternoon was a prime opportunity to do just that.

The Cyclones hosted the No. 10 Iowa Hawkeyes for a top-10 battle which is something new to this rivalry and it could have been a signature win for the head coach. But the Cyclones laid an egg.

The game was 14-10 for what seemed like an eternity before the Cyclones coughed the ball up a few times deep in their own territory. In fact, Iowa had less than 100 yards in the third quarter but was able to put 10 points on the board because of the turnover issues from the Cyclones.

Iowa State would make a decent comeback effort, but a missed field goal with just over 30 seconds left crushed any hope for a last-ditch effort.

What’d we learn from this crushing 10-point rivalry loss?

3. Breece Hall desperately needs a bounce-back

Breece Hall entered the 2021 season as one of the best running backs in the country and a potential Heisman Trophy candidate, but he was pretty quiet in the opener, rushing for 69 yards on 23 carries against Northern Iowa. Many hoped it was just an extreme outlier.

But Iowa shut him down as well.

Hall managed to outrush his counterpart for Iowa, Tyler Goodson, but he was far from effective, averaging 4.3 yards per carry, totaling 69 yards and a touchdown. Through two games, he’s averaging under four yards per touch and that’s not the best sign heading into the conference play in a couple of weeks.

Next week is a perfect opportunity for Hall to gain some momentum with a big game against UNLV and Matt Campbell needs to get him going.