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    • Iowa State football falters for the first time against Texas Tech
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    Iowa State football falters for the first time against Texas Tech

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    AMES – If it had been easy, another Iowa State football team would have done it sometime in the last 125 years. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a milestone. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be Iowa State football.

    But it’s not easy. Never been. That will never be the case.

    And it certainly isn’t now.

    The dream of perfection for the 10e-ranked Cyclones are over, and the path to the Big 12 Championship Game – and the College Football Playoff – became more difficult Saturday when Iowa State suffered its first loss of the season, 23-22 to Texas Tech.

    It was a surprising loss for the Cyclones (7-1, 4-1 Big 12), but fully deserved in what was clearly their worst and sloppiest performance of the season.

    Iowa State, the least penalized team in the country, was flagged eight times for 59 yards, lost their first fumble of the season, threw an interception and missed a field goal that looked like it was headed to Boone.

    Still, as they have done all year, the Cyclones gave themselves a chance with an elite defense and unusual resilience. But the mistakes were simply too great for them to overcome.

    Iowa State took its first lead of the game when Carson Brown made a pair of tacklers miss and raced down the sideline into the end zone with just over 2 minutes to play. Considering how well the Cyclone defense had played – and how the previous seven games had gone – it seemed like this would be enough to keep the perfection intact.

    But the magic that reigned in the Hilton Coliseum parking lot and seemed to be making its way into Jack Trice Stadium this season suddenly disappeared.

    Texas Tech simply outplayed the Iowa State defense, going 71 yards on 12 plays in 1 minute, 47 seconds before getting a touchdown with 20 seconds left.

    And just like that, the Cyclones’ perfect season came to an end.

    But not the hope for a dream season.

    The only irreparable damage done was to Iowa State’s overall resume for the College Football Playoff, and that on its own would probably never be strong enough anyway.

    The Cyclones still control their own destiny to reach the Big 12 title game, where a win will earn them not only their first true conference championship in program history, but also an automatic bid to the Playoff.

    This team hasn’t been shaken up this season, amid many in-game adversities. They have almost always responded with steel in their souls.

    Now the challenge is not to do it in a game, but during a week of preparation. To accept this defeat for what it is – a single loss – and move on towards the bigger goals.

    Doing anything else could undermine the entire operation.

    It was never going to be easy.

    Now the hard work continues.

    Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered cyclones for the Des Moines Register and the Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at [email protected] or (515) 284-8000. FFollow him on X at @TravisHines21.

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