Good, Bad Ugly for Iowa State Cyclones for Brutal Week 7 Loss to Colorado Buffaloes

The Iowa State Cyclones have a lot to work on heading into their bye after being defeated by the Colorado Buffaloes.

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The Iowa State Cyclones suffered their first setback in Week 6 when they went on the road to face the Cincinnati Bearcats. Unfortunately, things got even worse in Week 7 when they traveled to Boulder to take on the Colorado Buffaloes.

Many power rankings and projections had Deion Sanders’ team being a bottom-feeder in the Big 12. They certainly didn’t look like that against the Cyclones, putting together arguably their best all-around game of the campaign in a surprising upset.

Iowa State never looked fully comfortable, and an issue that plagued them against the Bearcats, an inability to come up clutch, reared its ugly head again. The Cyclones were outproduced in most metrics, resulting in a 24-17 loss.

What were some of the major takeaways from the loss? Here are the good, bad and ugly for Iowa State from Week 7.

Abu Sama III is the real deal

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The Cyclones were without running back Carson Hansen, who suffered a concussion on the second-to-last play of the first half against Cincinnati last week. He ended up not suiting up against the Buffaloes, but the running game didn’t miss a beat.

Sama was more than capable of handling the workload. After putting up an impressive 96 yards on 18 carries last week, he took his performance to another level against Colorado.

He handled 24 carries and racked up a career-high 177 yards on the ground. Two rushing touchdowns were scored to round out the impressive stat line, averaging 7.4 yards per carry.

When healthy, Hansen will certainly assume a sizable role in the offense again. However, Sama has more than earned the chance at an expanded role, looking like a true lead back while taking full advantage of the opportunity presented to him.

Rocco Becht falls to carry the offense

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It seemed whenever Iowa State needed a big play, their star quarterback would come up clutch. Time and time again, he would connect with a pass catcher to keep the team in the game. Against the Buffaloes, that didn’t happen.

Becht had a tough afternoon, completing only 18 of 33 passes for 205 yards. He failed to throw a touchdown and didn’t record a rushing score either, the first time this season he didn’t get into the end zone at least once.

His third interception of the season was thrown, and it was of the backbreaking variety. On 3rd-and-Goal from the seven-yard line, Becht targeted tight end Benjamin Brahmer on a fade route, but it was intercepted by Tawfiq Byard.

On the play, a flag was originally thrown for defensive pass interference. But after the referee crew met to discuss it, the flag was picked up. A penalty looked to have occurred, but Becht’s accuracy didn’t look to be there on the attempt, as evidenced by the interception.

On the ensuing possession, Becht mishandled a snap following a nine-yard Sama run that set the offense back, leading to an eventual turnover on downs.

It was far from his best performance, contributing to the team’s second loss.

Defense is a disaster

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When cornerbacks Jeremiah Cooper and Jontez Williams were both announced out with knee injuries, everyone knew the defense would be behind the eight ball. When taking into account the struggles of the defensive line that already existed, things may not be pretty.

Things weren’t as ugly as they were against the Bearcats, who scored on their first five possessions of the game. But it was another tough afternoon for the Cyclones, who got tormented by Kaidon Salter.

The former Liberty Flame star was benched at one point earlier this season. He came into the game throwing four interceptions in the last two games. But against Iowa State, he looked like the kind of dynamic performer the Buffaloes thought they were getting.

Salter threw for 255 yards and two touchdowns while adding 57 yards on the ground. Another nail in the coffin came on a big pass play near the end of the game when he connected on a 38-yard pass with Joseph Williams to ice the game.