Iowa State vs Texas football: Five things we learned in loss against Longhorns

Sam Richardson and the Iowa State offense is finally hitting its stride, E.J. Bibbs is showing the Big 12 why he deserved his All-Big 12 honors, and Cyclones.tv is a complete waste of money. That and more in the five things we learned in the Cyclones’ 48-45 loss to the Texas Longhorns.

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1. Iowa State’s offense is finally getting on track.

Over 500 yards of offense was reeled in by the same Cyclone offense that could barely move the ball at times this year. Sam Richardson is really becoming efficient, completing 65 percent of his passes and only making a few mistakes when it came to throwing picks or inaccuracy.

2. E.J. Bibbs is showing why he was the unanimous All-Big 12 tight end.

It was a slow start, but Bibbs has the most touchdown receptions currently on Iowa State (6) and had a career-high 10 catches against Texas. From the second half of the Oklahoma State game onward, he’s been red-hot in the passing game.

Oct 18, 2014; Austin, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns wide receiver John Harris (9) catches the ball under pressure from Iowa State Cyclones safety T.J. Mutcherson (22) during the first half at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports

3. T.J. Mutcherson can rip it out of the offense’s hands, too.

Mutcherson is a turnover forcing machine. Outside of the two picks he has on the season, he forced a fumble that gave Jevohn Miller the opportunity to run it back 51 yards for a touchdown.

4. Iowa State still hasn’t learned to win close games consistently.

After Iowa, you thought that the Cyclones learned how to win close games. Even when the offense went down the field in 50 seconds and tied the game up at 45-all you thought they figured it out. Instead, the defense gives up two backbreaking deep passes to give Texas an easy chip shot. Simply unacceptable.

5. Cyclones.tv is still a big work in progress.

Iowa State’s “premium” streaming service was certainly not ready for primetime. Technical difficulties plagued the first half and anger ensued until a little past the halfway point in the second quarter when Cyclones.tv just used the direct Longhorn Network feed until halftime, and that’s when they finally got their original feed working.

For a service that was borrowing LHN’s cameras anyway, having a meltdown like that (and the only reason a ton of Cyclone fans even bought the service in Iowa) is, again, unacceptable. It won’t happen, but a full refund this month for all subscribers in Iowa should be in the cards. Jamie Pollard can’t get defensive when Cyclone fans were already disappointed that the game was on Cyclones.tv to begin with, and then it catastrophically fails for an entire first half.

When it did work, commentary by both Brent Blum and Sage Rosenfels went well. Blum’s a veteran and it was a surprise to see Rosenfels as comfortable as he was. However, consistent graphic glitches were plagued throughout and the whole process screamed amateurish. Any Cyclone fan that paid $10 to watch the game should feel ripped off. Sorry, Cyclones.tv, but when my subscription is over, it won’t be renewing.

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