Sooners Fall to Cyclones in Ames

Saturday, October 3

Ames, Iowa

6:30 PM

University of Oklahoma

1-2 , 0-2

Iowa State

2-1 , 2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Oklahoma

Iowa State

Photo by: Ty Russell

October 03, 2020 | Football

Box Score Highlights Stats Box Score Photos Notes

By: John Rohde

AMES, Iowa — For the first time since 1960, Oklahoma lost a football game in Ames, Iowa, and for the first time since October 1999, OU has dropped consecutive regular season contests. The Sooners fell to Iowa State, 37-30, Saturday night, snapping a 24-game winning streak in Ames.

"A tough loss," OU head coach Lincoln Riley said afterward. "A very, very kind of a gut-wrenching loss."
Entering the contest, OU's .917 series winning percentage (76-6-2) against ISU was the best by one FBS program against another (minimum 50 meetings).

Saturday's outcome marked just the second true road game loss (22-2) since Riley arrived as the Sooners' offensive coordinator in 2015. OU is now 13-2 in true road games since Riley became head coach in 2017.

"Obviously, our backs are against the wall here as a football team," Riley said. "We know that. We understand that. We accept that … but it's about how you respond and I believe I know how this group will."

OU took a 17-6 lead at the 11:49 mark of the second quarter before ISU scored 10 consecutive points to pull within 17-16 midway through the third quarter.

"We had some opportunities there, especially at the end of the first half, to really gain some separation," Riley said. "We were playing good ball, just not great ball. When you're a great team, you take advantage of those chances, and we're not quite there yet."

The Sooners never trailed until the 1:18 mark of the third quarter when the Cyclones scored on a 65-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brock Purdy to Xavier Hutchinson to give ISU a 23-20 advantage.

The Sooners tied the score at 23 on a career-long 51-yard field goal from Gabe Brkic with 12:48 left in the game. It was Oklahoma's longest field goal in three seasons.

OU jumped back in front 30-23 with 8:17 remaining on a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Hall, which came four plays after Purdy was sacked by Isaiah Thomas and fumbled on his own 39.

ISU tied the score at 30 just two plays later after Kene Nwangwu returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to the Sooners' 13.

"The biggest single play was probably the kickoff return because we had so much momentum after the turnover and touchdown," Riley said. "That was a huge individual play."

The Cyclones got the ball back with 6:02 left and drove 55 yards in just four plays. Running back Breece Hall ran 36 yards to the OU 8 and rushed for a touchdown on the next play to set the final margin.

Hall finished with 139 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 28 carries. "We didn't do a very good job against Hall in the second half," Riley said.

The Sooners' last hope ended with a Spencer Rattler interception in the end zone with 1:02 left. Rattler completed 25 of 36 passes for 300 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Statistically, the game was pretty much even, but ISU averaged 21.7 yards-per-completion while the Sooners averaged 12.0.

"It came down to a back-and-forth game," Riley said. "There were a couple of plays that we didn't make. I thought we dropped two for-sure touchdown passes that certainly hurt."

The Sooners also were victimized by penalties at key moments. "We had a couple of tough calls that didn't go our way," Riley said. "That's part of life on the road. Again, we're one play short."

Since the start of the 1999 season, the Sooners were 14-1 against Iowa State entering Saturday night, with 13 of those 14 wins coming by double-digits. In OU's seven road games during that span, it had won by an average score of 38-16.

The Sooners are now 37-3-1 all-time in Ames.

"Despite the sickening feeling in my stomach right now and how disappointed we all are, we still know there are the makings of a good football team in there," Riley said. "I'll continue to ride with this team. We've got a lot of guys in there who are down, but certainly not out of the fight. And we're going to keep taking steps to get better."

The Sooners face Texas next Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. on FOX.