My father wondered aloud if ISU is better prepared to handle D lines that are big/strong/slow vs. small/fast d lines. I'm not sure he's wrong. Either way, ISU won the trenches on both sides of the ball.
Sans a late sack for a loss of 8, ISU had 3 100+ yd rushers against Tx Tech. Reviewing the statistics from the game may not look like dominance:
Comp/Att yds Avg TD INT
| J. Barnett | 14/26 | 144 | 5.5 | 1 | 0 |
Until you get here:
368 yard of rushing.
Carries Yards
White, James 31 141
Hollis, Duran 4 101
Barnett, Jared 19 112
Woody, Jeff 11 38
ISU TxTech
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS 512 290
Total offense plays 93 64
Possession Time 40:09 20:0
Wow boys. ISU also allowed Tx Tech NO passing touchdowns. When you take away an offense's best weapon, you'll win that ball game.
In fact, in the 3rd Quarter, I was starting to tire of ISU having the ball and in really no danger of losing this game at all.
Barnett made good decisions, White and Hollis were quite the duo slashing the Tx Tech defense, and the ISU defense had 2 takeways (one interception was returned 73 yards to put the Cyclones near the red zone!).
It was a great game, best since at least 2002 NU game.
Bring on the J-Hawks!
