Iowa State Football Has Failed To Execute Key Area Defensively

Week 11 is going to make or break the Iowa State Cyclones when it comes to their odds of earning a bid to a bowl game.

They are playing at home, hosting the Cincinnati Bearcats at Jack Trice Stadium. They have been excellent in Ames this season, with their only loss coming against the Utah Utes. In their other four games, they have defeated the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, Bowling Green Falcons, West Virginia Mountaineers and Oklahoma State Cowboys.

If the Cyclones are to add the Bearcats to that list, there is one thing they need to improve upon: tackling.

Iowa State is the worst tackling team in the country through Week 10, as shared by Cody Nagel on X. Out of the 138 FBS teams in the nation, Iowa State has a 19.5% missed tackle rate, nearly double that of the Oregon Ducks, who have the best tackle rate at 10.2%.

Iowa State has been an awful tackling team this season

How Well Does Your Defense Tackle? 🏈

% of Tackles Missed | Thru Week 10 🔢 pic.twitter.com/yLPxq54xuK
— Cody Nagel (@CodyNagel247) November 9, 2026

GET READY TO COMPETE

Pick your champion (you can change it later). We’ll email you when brackets open.

No purchase necessary. 50 U.S./D.C. 18+. Entry opens 3PM ET Dec 6, 2026 and closes 8PM ET Dec 18, 2026. Void where prohibited.See for complete details. The College Football Playoff (CFP) is not a sponsor or administrator of this contest.

This is an incredibly disappointing development because the defense was expected to be the strength of the Cyclones this season. That unit is what helped the Washington State Cougars exceed expectations last season when led by Jimmy Rogers as head coach and Jesse Bobbit as defensive coordinator.

Unfortunately, that success has not traveled with them from Pullman, as the defense has a lot to clean up heading into a must-win game against Cincinnati. Of course, tackling isn’t solely responsible for their lackluster performance.

Taking a look at the list, the BYU Cougars aren’t very far ahead of Iowa State with a missed tackle rate of 18.7%, which puts them in 136th. The Miami Hurricanes, who were the No. 1 ranked team in the country before losing to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, are 129th with a missed tackle rate of 17.4%.

However, they have been able to excel in other areas defensively to make up for their sloppy tackling. They also have overall rosters that are much deeper than the Cyclones, where issues such as missed tackles aren’t as exacerbated.

Per PFF, Iowa State has an abysmal tackling grade of 30.9. That is by far the worst in college football, with the closest team being the Florida Atlantic Owls with a tackling grade of 42. It is certainly an area that the coaching staff needs to focus on in the remainder of the season to achieve their goal of reaching a bowl game.

The Cyclones have been credited with 125 missed tackles this season by PFF. Linebacker Sullivan Schlimgen, who has been the team’s best player on defense, has the most with 20. Safety Brody Miller, linebacker Carson Willich and safety Drew Surges are the other three with double-digit missed tackles.

Add us as a preferred source on Google