AMES – There was plenty to be worried about for Iowa State football during its bye week. The Cyclones spent the previous two weeks playing decidedly mediocre football, with miscues and misfires ending their perfect start to the season. Injuries, too, conspired to contribute to those two losses and lower the ceiling of possibility.
Perhaps, though, the most distressing thing about the situation Iowa State found itself in was its immediate schedule. Coming out of its idle Saturday, there was a real possibility that the Cyclones could play pretty good football upon their return – and still lose, thanks to a schedule offering them no favors.
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So Iowa State can take solace that it did, in fact, play much better, cleaner and more productive football Oct. 25 against No. 10 BYU, but, the reality of Big 12 football what it is, that it wasn’t nearly good enough at all.
In the end, the modicum of hope remaining for a special Cyclones season was snuffed out.
Losers of three-straight after a 41-27 defeat to the Cougars, whatever optimism you might want to pull from an improved performance seems awfully beside the point.
A season that began on the international stage with realistic hopes of a once-in-a-century conference championship and a spot among the country’s elite in the College Football Playoff now looks like a scramble to find a fate better than the Liberty Bowl.
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Even the most fervent and Busch-Light-Half-Full fan you can find will have trouble putting on a brave face after this one.
Because as much as, on the whole, Iowa State played better, cleaner and more productive football, they also had spectacular moments of self-sabotage and poor play. Not only were those instances enough to cost the Cyclones the game, but they make the actual good football Iowa State played feel like an illusion. Fool’s gold. Fleeting.
The 75-yard touchdown pass from Rocco Becht on the game’s first play? Doesn’t matter much when you throw a backbreaking pick-6 in the fourth quarter.
Play mostly clean football? Doesn’t matter much when you “muff” a punt because a blocker didn’t hear the “Fire!” call on a ball that was otherwise rolling harmlessly until it found Beni Ngoyi’s ankle.
BYU Cougars tight end Carsen Ryan (20)gets tackle Iowa State Cyclones’ defensive back Jamison Patton (2) after making a catch during the first quarter at Jack Trice Stadium on Oct. 25, 2025, in Ames, Iowa.
So does it really matter that Iowa State played markedly better than it performed in losses to Cincinnati and Colorado? Given the size and timing of those blunders, there’s probably an argument that the Cyclones didn’t actually even play better. Their fourth quarter was just shy of a catastrophe, and the final result was the same, after all.
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I think it does matter, as no one wants to spend November watching a football team drowning in its own struggles. Hardly a silver lining after Iowa State entered October 5-0 and goes into November still not bowl~eligible, I know.
There’s no denying that the headline coming out of Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday is that the Cyclones’ season won’t be anything close to what so many cardinal-and-gold faithful had hoped as recently as three weeks ago.
This so often was the month of the season when Iowa State football flourished. This year, though, it’s floundering.
Fears are being realized, and there’s no promise the frights stop on the other side of Halloween.
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Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State flails vs BYU for third-straight loss | Hines
