No. 9 Iowa State Embarrasses West Virginia in Blowout Win

From start to finish, the ninth ranked Iowa State Cyclones dominated West Virginia in all three phases of the game, resulting in a 42-6 win.

The Mountaineers moved the ball well through the air on the first drive of the game. QB Jarrett Doege connected with Sean Ryan for a gain of 26 yards to push the ball into Iowa State territory. A couple of plays later, Doege hit Isaiah Esdale just shy of the first down marker, forcing head coach Neal Brown to make a tough decision early in the game. West Virginia elected to leave the offense on the field, but running back Leddie Brown got caught leaning and was flagged for a false start penalty, making the Mountaineers punt instead.

The first possession for Iowa State was fueled by converting on third and fourth downs. On 3rd and 9 QB Brock Purdy didn't find an open window to throw the ball, so he took off and picked up the first down with his feet picking up just enough to move the sticks. Like Neal Brown, Iowa State's Matt Campbell had to make a tough decision on their first drive after a completed pass Xavier Hutchinson fell just shy of making the line to gain. On 4th and 3 Purdy hit Chase Allen for a five-yard gain and once again, moving the chains. That was followed up by a 23-yard touchdown from running back Breece Hall to give the Cyclones an early 7-0 advantage. West Virginia was flagged for illegal substitution on the play for having 12 men on the field, causing the touchdown to stand.

Penalties continued to hurt the Mountaineers in the first quarter, this time on special teams as wide receiver Reese Smith was called for holding, backing West Virginia up deep, inside their own 10. Iowa State forced a three and out and got terrific field position, starting at the West Virginia 44. The Cyclones capitalized on the short field and the drive was capped off with a 10-yard touchdown rush from Brock Purdy.

West Virginia began to find a little rhythm offensively after Doege found slot receiver T.J. Simmons for a 13-yard completion on 3rd down. The Mountaineers got all the way down to the 17 thanks to a couple of short yardage conversions on the quarterback sneak with some help from tight end Mike O'Laughlin pushing him forward. Just when West Virginia was starting to get somewhere, they started back-peddling with a false start on right tackle Parker Moorer and an illegal forward pass from Doege on 3rd down. Doege was about 4-5 yards past the line of scrimmage and threw it downfield to T.J. Simmons. Casey Legg trotted out for a 41- yard field goal to get the Mountaineers on the board from the right hash, but the kick went straight and didn't close to going in.

Iowa State continued to impose their will up front pushing around the Mountaineers' defensive line and put together another scoring drive to go up 21-0 with a two-yard pass from Purdy to Landen Akers.

West Virginia was hoping to get something going with a little over a minute left in the half, but redshirt freshman left tackle Brandon Yates got beat on back-to-back plays, allowing two sacks. Iowa State held a 21-0 edge at the break.

The Mountaineer defense desperately needed to get a stop to start the 2nd half to stay in the game. They were able to force two punts from Iowa State in two drives with the 2nd punt only going 17 yards, which gave West Virginia the ball at their own 35-yard line. The only problem? Zero points from the Mountaineer offense. The first failed 4th down conversion was a completed pass to T.J. Simmons who ran his route two yards short of first down marker and the 2nd failed 4th down conversion was a wide open pass dropped by Simmons.

On the ensuing drive, Breece Hall broke loose for a 23-yard run, which set up a 16-yard touchdown pass from Purdy to tight end Charlie Kolar to extend the lead out to 28-0. West Virginia went three and out on its next drive and four plays later, Iowa State tacked onto their lead once again with a 47-yard touchdown rush up the middle from Kene Nwangwu who went untouched.

West Virginia finally got on the board in the 4th quarter with a 32-yard field goal from Tyler Sumpter, avoiding the team's first shutout since 2013.

Iowa State scored once more on a 4th and 5 pass to running back Breece Hall who jogged into the end zone from 28 yards out to make matters worse. Sumpter made another field goal for West Virginia to make the score 42-6, which would end up being the final score of the game. West Virginia now moves to 5-4 (4-4) on the season.

West Virginia will close out their 2020 regular season next Saturday when they welcome in the Oklahoma Sooners.

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