Score Predictions for West Virginia at Iowa State

The Mountaineers Now staff makes their picks for this week's game.

The West Virginia Mountaineers travel to Ames (IA) to meet the Iowa State Cyclones Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EST with the action streaming on ESPN+. 

Schuyler Callihan: West Virginia 27 Iowa State 20

WVU has an extremely thin backfield right now and recently just lost leading rusher CJ Donaldson for the season. Who knows how much the Mountaineers will be able to run the ball, but they were very thin at that spot in the second half of the TCU game and remained within reach. 

The defense played its best half of football maybe all year against the Horned Frogs and I look for that to carry over to this week's game. The Cyclones can't run the football (97.3 ypg) and have turned it over ten times through the air. I'll take the Mountaineers this week.

Christopher Hall: Iowa State 22 West Virginia 17

West Virginia will face the best defense in the league and arguably the best in the country without its big bruising back CJ Donaldson. He would have been key in this matchup for short-yardage situations. 

Additionally, West Virginia has gotten off to slow starts on the road, and although Iowa State has the worst offense in the conference, a low scoring field position battle plays right into their hands.

Ideally, like all road games, a fast start is a must, but WVU has yet to prove it in league play. I have picked West Virginia to win every game this season but prior to the season, I had this loss locked in and I'm sticking with it. Cyclones defense is too much, and the Mountaineer defense cannot hold on enough. Iowa State 22 West Virginia 17. 

Julia Mellett: WVU 31 - Iowa State 21

This 3-5 Iowa State Cyclones team appears to be almost a carbon copy of the Mountaineers (also 3-5) this season.

WVU's offense rushes only 50 plays more than the Cyclones, and Iowa State's Hunter Dekkers edges JT Daniels' aerial efficiency out by 30 completions. Dekkers has an incredible target in WR Xavier Hutchinson, who has registered 830 yards on 77 receptions this season. To put that in perspective for Mountaineer fans: that's only slightly less than WVU's Bryce Ford-Wheaton and Sam James combined. He's going to be a major threat to West Virginia's rapidly crumbling WVU secondary.

Defensively, it's another close match-up. The two programs are nearly identical in defensive efficacy. ISU's Anthony Johnson Jr. is the DB to watch. He leads the team in tackles, while LB O'Rein Vance has five TFLs (25 yards), 1.5 sacks, and leads the team with a trio of forced fumbles. 

Regardless, Big 12 rankings dictate that Iowa State sits dead last (0-5), while the Mountaineers' win over Baylor served to bump the team a half step off the bottom (1-4).

Iowa State opponents are 86 percent in the red zone to the West Virginia offense's 92 percent conversion, WVU's Dante Stills is on a high from last week's record-breaking, and Iowa State's defense is trying to evade an 0-6 Big 12 record. 

At this point in the season, it could go either way, and it's essentially a must-win for both teams. I think WVU will prevail.

Cody Moyer: West Virginia 34 Iowa State 28

Cody is not much for insight this week, but he has the Mountaineers taking down the Cyclones "in a close one" 34-28.

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