IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Kyle Konrardy made a 54-yard field goal with six seconds left to give Iowa State a 20-19 victory over No. 21 Iowa on Saturday, only the Cyclones’ third victory in the last 11 games against the Hawkeyes.
Konrardy, who had missed a 41-yard field-goal attempt in the second quarter, got his chance when the Cyclones (2-0) drove 42 yards on three pass completions from quarterback Rocco Becht after getting the ball at their own 22 with 34 seconds remaining.
“You’ve got to focus, not on the mistakes, but focus on what’s next,” Konrardy said. “Part of it was just not even think about the mistake, but focus on what I could do now.”
The key, Konrardy said, was “not think.”
“That’s it,” he said. “Just go out there and not think and just do what you do.”
Asked if he was able to do that, Konrardy smiled and said, “Yes sir.”
“It’s just like practice,” Becht said. “He hits those all of the time in practice. He has no doubt.”
Iowa (1-1) got a 35-yard return from Max White on the ensuing kickoff and had time for one play, but Cade McNamara’s pass was intercepted by Darien Porter.
The Hawkeyes led 19-7 with 4:47 left in the third quarter after Kaleb Johnson’s 4-yard touchdown run. McNamara’s two-point conversion pass was incomplete, a play that proved to be important at the end.
“I felt like we were teetering on the edge the whole time,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.
But the Cyclones rallied, with Becht throwing a 75-yard touchdown pass to Jaylin Noel late in the third quarter and Konrardy adding a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth.
“The real win is when you see young men respond to adversity,” Campbell said. “Life is going to be hard. There’s going to be tough moments. But you have to respond to adversity.”
Johnson, who rushed for 187 yards, opened the scoring for Iowa with a 27-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The Hawkeyes led 13-0 at halftime, but they squandered chances to get more points in the first half. They had first-and-goal at the Iowa State 1 early in the second quarter, and another first-and-goal situation at the 3 in the quarter, but only came away with two field goals from Drew Stevens.
“I really felt that was the game,” Campbell said. “When we were able to make those stands down there, I thought, man, we can get the momentum going our way in the second half.”
The Cyclones outgained the Hawkeyes 361-303.
“Today, the bigger issue is not at least getting one touchdown on those field-goal opportunities, when we had the ball down near their goal line,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Obviously, that’s an area we’re going to have to improve on.”
Becht, who had a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Higgins early in the third quarter to start Iowa State’s scoring, threw for 272 yards. Noel had five catches for 133 yards.
“We expanded a little bit more,” Becht said about the play-calling. “We wanted to be more aggressive in the second half.”
Iowa had 204 rushing yards. McNamara was 13 of 28 for 99 yards.
BIG PICTURE
The Hawkeyes had a chance to take control of the game early, but couldn’t get more points out of those drives deep into Cyclone territory. That left the game in the hands of Iowa’s defense, which kept Iowa State contained until that final drive.
It took a while before Iowa State’s defense finally had an answer for Iowa in the second half. The Cyclones held Iowa to just 15 yards on four possessions after cutting the lead to 19-17, but couldn’t get anything going against Iowa’s defense until the closing drive.
UP NEXT
Iowa State: Hosts Arkansas State on Saturday, Sept. 21
Iowa: Hosts Troy on Saturday.
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