The Reaction:
What a fun game. What a fun day. So cool to see the stadium rocking like that. So cool to see it getting the love it deserved. Ames is a great college football town, and that was on display. Quintessential fall.
Oklahoma State sold out on the run, and Brock Purdy answered the bell, with some outstanding catches from the corps to help the cause. Xavier Hutchinson was automatic. The defense forced Spencer Sanders and his receivers to make plays, and they did make plays, but not enough plays. Will McDonald IV took things over in the OSU backfield at the end. Great things to see all around.
Big, big win. Showed up when they needed to. Put themselves back in a competitive place.
The Big Picture:
Iowa State improves to 5-2 and slides into the three-way tie we’ve been anticipating for second in the conference. As we’ve also been anticipating, I believe they hold the tiebreaker in that tie by virtue of Baylor having the worst intra-tie point differential and Iowa State having now beaten Oklahoma State head-to-head. Might not end up mattering, but might end up mattering. The goal of making the Big 12 Championship is now an expectation, which is a great place to be compared to where things stood after the Baylor loss.
Relevant Results:
With Oklahoma looking awful at Kansas, the chance Iowa State’s the best team in the Big 12 is looking existent, at the very least. With West Virginia beating TCU, TCU’s no longer a relevant concern in the standings (everyone but Kansas is tough to beat in league play, so they’re all still concerns in that regard).
Next Week:
On Saturday afternoon, the Cyclones enter Morgantown hoping to make a bit of a statement. We’d take a win any way we could have it, though.
