Winding down and cranking up

The 2022 football season ended with a thud. A motivated TCU squad overwhelmed our Cyclones, but they had no choice: A 17-14 win would have opened the door for the naysayers to question whether TCU was worthy of the playoffs, and maybe we should give two-loss Alabama another look. Style points mattered. 

Now we wait on staff changes and the comings and going in the transfer portal. Movement is inevitable, and we can only hope to come out on the plus side in the end. Any improvement on the offensive line and special teams and the program is in a good place to compete. 

Few are commenting on TCU's 5-7 record last year, where they only won 3 B12 games and had several blowout losses, including 48-14 in Ames. Teams can turn quickly.

Basketball is all upside, as both teams have post players they are adapting to. Each looked good in Oregon and showed they can compete with top flight teams. Offensive continuity will be key, especially the men.

Winter should be fun, and hopefully each team has a satisfying finish.

Memorable

 We now have data to confirm how large of a missed opportunity this Cyclone Football season has been, courtesy The Athletic:

From 2017-2021, teams with Top 10 in stop-rate (percentage of defensive drives that end in punts, turnovers or turnovers on downs) win at a .793 rate. Of those 50 teams, 31 won 10 or more games, 23 played for conference titles. 

Of those 50 teams, only one finished with a losing record, and in came in the COVID dominated season of 2020 when Air Force finished 3-3. 

ISU is 4-7.

Stunning. Doing unlikely things in unlikely ways. Playing literally "Exceptional Football".

Upright

 For one week, thanks to a big 4th quarter, Cyclone Football stopped taking on water.

This win certainly goes to the defense. 12 possessions, 8 3-and-outs, a 4-and out, and a 5-and out. 10 possessions, 33 plays, 57 net yards. That will win you a lot of games. Two scores given up on A) end-of-half prevent defense and B) end-of-half prevent defense full of second and third teamers. We can roll with that.

The hair raising part of the day was how long it took ISU to put the game away. On their first 9 possessions, ISU scored 10 points on 53 plays and 153 yards. No bueno. 

The rough-the-kicker penalty after a short ineffective drive was the turning point, to put it mildly. 38 yards on a run by Silas, two yard run, and a 24 yard TD pass to X finished a snappy drive that was surprising in efficiency. 

After another 3-and-out by the defense and another big Silas run leads to the clinching TD. Fun stuff.

The 4th quarter run game breakout was a relief to witness, and perhaps gives the fan base a tiny bit of optimism moving forward. Finding two more wins to gain bowl-eligibility is plausible but no gimme, but its a much better chair than most of us sat in last week.

This is still a relatively young offensive unit, especially with only two seniors in the two-deeps on the line. Perhaps a bit of growth happened Saturday.

Onward.