From a field goal shanked wide left at halftime to a 54-yarder drilled through the uprights with six seconds to go, a lot changed over the final 30 minutes in No. 21 Iowa football’s heartbreaking loss to rival Iowa State Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. Heading into the locker room up, 13-0, the Hawkeyes looked to mirror what they did against Illinois State; pile on points and slap the opposition with another goose egg. 

Instead, it was anything but against the Cyclones, as head coach Kirk Ferentz’s squad was outscored, outgained, and outplayed in the second half as the offense fell flat while the usually stout defense lapsed in crucial situations. The Cy-Hawk trophy heads to Ames for just the second time in the last nine matchups, and for all the shock amid the upset, the Hawkeye players weren’t pointing fingers at anyone but themselves. 

“We got to finish games, we got to execute,” Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins said postgame. “That’s not us defensively. We’re better than that. I got to do a better job of getting everybody on the line and continue to be a good leader if we’re doing good or doing bad.” 

A lot of things went bad for the Hawkeyes in the third and fourth quarters. Aside from one touchdown drive early in the third quarter, every Iowa drive either ended in a three-and-out, totaled less than 20 yards, or ended with an interception. Meanwhile, the defense conceded four pass plays for at least 18 yards during that time frame, including back-to-back scores and a backbreaking final drive that put the game on ice. 

Miscues sprang up less than three minutes into the second half, with quarterback Cade McNamara firing an interception to Cyclone senior defensive back Darien Porter, the former’s first pick of the season and the latter’s first of his career. 

The play started with play action to running back Kaleb Johnson, with McNamara rolling to his right, hounded by two defenders. Porter faked toward the line of scrimmage as if he was playing the run, then dropped back in coverage in time to snag the ball away from tight end Luke Lachey. 

“I just made a dumb decision,” McNamara said of the turnover. “I should have just thrown it away. I can’t force a ball in that situation.” 

The Cyclones made good on the opportunity, driving the ball 79 yards on nine plays for a score. About 75 percent of those yards came from through the air, with Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht converting two passes of 20-plus yards before finding wideout Jayden Higgins in the corner of the end zone. Higgins, an all-conference honorable mention last season, faced tight coverage from Hawkeye cornerback TJ Hall and made an acrobatic grab for the score. 

For Iowa defensive back Sebastian Castro, the Cyclones’ success was less about the impressive score and more so based on the chunk gains from earlier, with Becht finding open receivers with room to run. He said that after halftime, Iowa State had understood how Iowa would adjust defensively to certain looks and took advantage. 

“They did a good job of singling us out in the passing game,” he said. “Finding holes in our defense, whether it was man or zone. [Iowa State] just knows us so well. We knew it was going to be a close game so it would come down to those situations.” 

Castro explained that a “form” of Iowa State singling out Iowa’s coverage came on the very next drive, which lasted all of one play.  

On first-and-10, a well-protected Becht sat in the pocket and launched a dime down the right hash to wide receiver Jaylin Noel, who scampered untouched to the end zone as Iowa State cut the lead to five. Noel ran a post route and caught Iowa safety Xavier Nwankpa flat-footed, zooming past him into open space. Backup Koen Entringer replaced Nwankpa after the play and didn’t receive much playing time afterward. 

However, Nwankpa’s teammates came to his defense. 

“As the strong safety, that’s a hard position to be in, especially in that particular route. It’s a tough play,” Castro said. 

For Jay Higgins, Nwankpa shouldn’t have even faced the difficulty to begin with, as the linebacker messed up the play from the start. Before reaching Nwankpa, Noel raced past Higgins with barely any contact to slow him down. 

“I got to get a better jam on the receiver,” Higgins said. “For Xavier, his job versus my job in that coverage is a lot harder than mine. We work on it every day. [Iowa linebackers coach Seth] Wallace teaches us to jam receivers.

“So [Xavier] is counting on me to slow that guy down, reroute him, and get the timing off, and I didn’t do that on that play,” he continued. “Everybody’s going to look at [Xavier] and blame him, but it was on me.”

Even though the Cyclones were climbing back into the game, the Hawkeye offense wasn’t doing any favors after scoring its lone touchdown in the second half, mounting three consecutive three-and-outs and never getting more than one yard into enemy territory. 

McNamara completed 10-of-19 passes for 80 yards in the first half, but over the final frame completed 3-of-10 for 19 yards. Johnson noted the Cyclones blitzed more after halftime, but McNamara chalked up the second half to a lack of execution. 

“I don’t think it was the [defensive adjustments] or it was the schematic side,” the quarterback said. “It just came down to us being able to execute the play, and we just weren’t able to do that today.” 

The final nail in the coffin came on Iowa State’s final drive of the play. Starting on its down 22-yard line with no timeouts and 34 seconds to go, the Cyclones sliced the Hawkeyes for 42 passing yards on three plays before settling for the field goal. 

Thirty of those yards came to Noel, who reeled in a 10-yarder followed by a 30-yarder down the sideline to get the Cyclones within range. On the second play, Castro jammed Noel about five yards down the line of scrimmage but dragged his eyes away from the receiver as Noel broke free to make the catch. 

“I got my eyes in the wrong place, [looking at the ball] and trying to make the play, and once I looked away, [Noel] snuck away,” Castro said. “That was just the best play they could’ve done in that moment. I wasn’t thinking in that sense, just got to be more disciplined.” 

 Iowa adheres to the 24-hour rule, wherein regardless of a win or loss, the emotions experienced should last no longer than one day. Another game is on the horizon and the team needs to redirect its focus. Yet for Castro and others, this loss might linger. 

“I’m pretty sure a lot of guys are going to try to hold on to this feeling, whether they try to or not,” Castro said. “It’s definitely going to make us better and it’s a very humbling experience for our team.” 

During his six years at Iowa, Castro has never gotten to experience a Cy-Hawk win at Kinnick Stadium, and missing out on that feeling stings, but for the Hawkeye, the pain is more internal. 

“I made a lot of mistakes, more than I feel like I usually do,” an emotional Castro said. “And anyone can watch, when you’re in that position,” 

Castro paused for a moment to collect his breath, wiping a hand in front of his face to gain composure before finishing the thought. 

“You feel like you let your guys down,” he continued.