Iowa State Not Great Enough » Brats & Beer

September 17, 2006
posted under: Hawkeyes suck, Iowa State football

Why do my Cyclones do this to me? Either play to the end and win the game or just concede early so I can get on with other things. Iowa State played a brilliant first half yesterday to take a 14-3 lead over the Schmuckeyes but went stone cold in the second half and allowed Iowa to come back and win 27-17.

The Clones really looked determined, confident, and scrappy at the start of the game. They got a lucky break on the opening kickoff and scored early, but the second scoring drive — 13 plays for 87 yards — was just brilliant. It looked like they really had Iowa on the ropes. The defense, too, looked like they were ready to play, holding Iowa down for nearly the whole first 30 minutes. But then the second half rolled around and Iowa State just rolled over. To trot out an old sports broadcasting chestnut, one team made adjustments at halftime and the other one didn’t, but it looked to me like someone must have put something in the water or abducted the team and replaced them with zombies because ISU couldn’t get anything done on offense and the defense looked overwhelmed.

Not that this is the first we’ve seen of that this season. The Cyclones couldn’t put Toledo away after taking a 14-8 lead and they nearly let UNLV complete their comeback last week. Is there a problem with conditioning? Maybe they’ve been feeding the team McDonald’s at halftime, because I know that always makes me feel logy afterwards. Whatever it is, Coach McCarney has to find a way to get this team to play for 60 whole minutes or this is really going to be a long, long season.