Iowa State Pulls Yet Another Shocking Upset

Iowa State players celebrating during their game last weekend vs. no. 4 TCU (via USAToday)

Leif Lindquist

An Iowa State team that has a quarterback who can throw the ball but is extremely immobile, and not a single running back that averages over 5 rushing yards per carry, has managed to pull a pair of amazing upsets this season. They have a shot at another one at home against currently no. 11 Oklahoma State on November 11th. Iowa State relies on the air raid, as their running backs can’t do anything for them and neither can their QB’s run game. Iowa State has two receivers with 400 plus receiving yards on the season, four with 300 plus yards. They have seven receivers that average over 10 yards per reception, and nine receivers that average above 9 yards per reception. All these wideouts go very well together with a quarterback that throws for 7.74 yards per pass with a 66.7% completion rate. That is their backup QB, Kyle Kempt, whose numbers don’t differentiate much between the starting QB, Jacob Park, who is out. Kyle Kempt played his first game of the season at Oklahoma, and left Oklahoma stunned. With that said, if Iowa State can’t get the pass game going against a certain defense, they are prone to lose.

I think that the reason Iowa State isn’t 7-1 is because they only have one offensive option to go to, which is the air raid. I am not accounting for the loss against Iowa because that game was a shootout and the offense was flowing very well, there was just no defense for either teams. However, if the Cyclones had one or more talented running backs, they would have easily beaten Texas because Texas has the same problem as Iowa State on offense. In that game, Texas figured out how to stop Iowa State’s passing game, but if Iowa State had had a talented back they could have just opened up the run game and Texas would not be able to match up with it with their offense. All in all, Iowa State could be an extremely lethal team if they had a mobile quarterback and one or two talented running backs.

Sources: CFP