Baylor Loss Blah, Blah, Blah

Not a lot I can say about this loss to Baylor.   It felt like a paper cut covered in lemon juice.   Iowa State had 195 more total yards than Baylor.  The Iowa game Iowa State had 166 more total yards than the Hawkeyes, and lost.   The conclusion is: Iowa State is beating their selves and finding ways to lose.  I know, "Thanks Captain Obvious."

This one was the tale of two halves.   Baylor QB Gerry Bohannon looked like an unstoppable Tom Brady during the first half.  Bohannon had 1 rushing touchdown and 2 passing touchdowns and the score at half was 21-13.  First half was all Mr. Bohannon. Why do we insist on playing from behind.  I wish we could come out of the locker room and training camp without our pants around our ankles. 

Second, half exposed one of the giant holes in the fence of the Iowa State game.   The special teams were anything but special. Insert Dana Carvey, "isn't that special."  As great as Bohannon and the Baylor offense looked in the first half ISU shut them down in the second.   Baylor (Ebner) had 3 kickoff returns for 121, and a touchdown, plus, Ebner had 2 punt returns for 47 yards.   One Ebner punt return was 41 yards that set up a 3 point kick.   The only points scored in the second were off Special teams.    

Iowa State had only 3 penalties and 2 of those were absolutely tick tack calls.  Baylor had 9 penalties for 100 yards.   I expected before hand if Iowa State lost this game it would have been due to turnovers, but it wasn't.   Iowa State has traded in the Dan McCarney Achilles heal of the missed field goals  for the Matt Campbell Achilles heal of special teams returning kicks for touchdowns (shall I mention Louisiana last year).   It felt like we outplayed the Bears, but still lost.   ISU drops from Top 25.  

We got the second highest recruited punter last year, but I'll take Baylor's punter he was a difference maker.  Why did Iowa State keep getting the ball punted 15 yards over our head forcing us to back up from where we were lined up.   Every single punt in the second half forced our return team to field the punt running backward toward our own goal.  Baylor consistently hit booming kicks placing us in poor field position.   In a post game report Tristan Ebner stated that Baylor thought they could exploit our special teams and that was a major difference in the game.  Who else is going to think the same thing. .