Cyclone of pain: Iowa State runs all over BYU in 45-13 home loss

PROVO — While only a handful of the 60,754 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium were filing for the exits in the third quarter, a larger majority was booing BYU's latest Big 12 blunder.

Abu Sama ran for 110 yards and two touchdowns, and Iowa State piled up 443 yards en route to a 45-13 win over the Cougars, becoming the seventh team from the conference to clinch bowl eligibility.

Eli Sanders added 57 yards and a touchdown, and freshman quarterback Rocco Becht completed 15-of-23 passes for 203 yards and two scores for the Cyclones (6-4, 5-2 Big 12), including five passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns to Jaylin Noel.

"I thought Iowa State did everything they needed to do to win the game," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. "They attacked us on all three phases. If you look at the stats, you can see they won the turnover battle, and third downs have been an issue for us on defense and on offense. We were 1-for-11 on third downs, and 1-for-4 on fourth downs. Horrible, it's not good enough. ... There are a lot of things that didn't go well."

Jake Retzlaff completed 10-of-27 passes for 104 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions; and Parker Kingston also threw a touchdown pass — his second of the year — for the Cougars (5-5, 2-5 Big 12).

Aidan Robbins ran for 58 yards on 10 carries and LJ Martin added 56 yards on eight carries for BYU, which piled up a season-high 188 of its 318 yards on the ground but never found a consistent offense in converting just 1-of-11 third downs and 1-of-3 red-zone opportunities in the Cougars' third-straight loss.

"It sucks. It totally sucks, and that's how every loss feels," said tight end Isaac Rex, who caught a team-high three passes for 52 yards and a touchdown. "It sucks worse at home, because we have a lot of great fans that care about us and came out to support us. To get blown out like that is embarrassing."

There was little redeemable about BYU's offensive performance — beginning with the first play.

Retzlaff completed a pass on the opening play in his first home start, rolling out to his right before his throw landed in the arms of Iowa State's Will McLaughin. Three plays later, Recht found Noel for a 4-yard touchdown to give the Cyclones a 7-0 lead.

On the very next touch, Ray Paulo fumbled the kickoff return to set up Iowa State at the 23-yard line, which Chase Contreraz converted into a 31-yard field goal to stretch the Cyclones' lead to 10-0.

There was a lot of football left. But the cracks had already begun when Retzlaff shorted that pass for a linebacker interception on the opening play.

"It's tough, but this team is tougher," said Retzlaff, who also ran for a team-high 64 yards on 17 carries. "We did it at Arkansas and came out with a win. I don't think there was any lack of belief on our sidelines that we could do that today. Obviously, we didn't, but we had that belief on the sideline."

So the Cougars went to the ground, running on six straight plays before Retzlaff found freshman Jojo Phillips with a 5-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 10-7.

But Sanders capped a nine-play, 72-yard drive with a 4-yard scoring plunge to give the Cyclones a 17-7 lead after the first quarter.

Cartevious Norton and Sama added a pair of second quarter scoring runs as the Cyclones averaged 5.5 yards per carry for 127 rushing yards in the first half against BYU, piling up 235 yards of total offense and converting on 6-of-8 third downs with a perfect 5-of-5 red-zone conversion rate en route to a 31-7 halftime lead.

Rex opened the second half with three-straight catches, including a 26-yard haul off a double pass from Kingston to score the 23rd touchdown of his career. The score broke a tie with BYU Hall of Famer Gordon Hudson for the most receiving touchdowns by a tight end in program history, and pulled the Cougars within 31-13 with 10:05 left in the third quarter.

The moment meant a lot for Rex. The loss? It did, too, just not in the same way.

"I love this university so much, I love these fans. I've been a BYU fan my whole life," he said. "It's really cool. There have been a lot better tight ends that came before, and a lot better tight ends that will come after me. To get a record like that is cool, but right now I've got to figure out a way to help this offense move the ball and win."

But the good vibes lasted less than two minutes, until Becht found Noel for his second touchdown, a 66-yard scamper down the west sideline to restore the 38-13 advantage before Sama put the game out of reach for good with his second scoring run.

AJ Vongphachanh had eight tackles for BYU; and Tyler Batty added six tackles, a sack and a quarterback hurry.

BYU hosts No. 17 Oklahoma next Saturday at 10 a.m. MST, the earliest home kickoff since 2004, on ABC or ESPN in the regular-season home finale.

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