Cyclones Too Much For Sixth-Ranked West Virginia

Saturday, October 13

Ames, Iowa

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

5-1 , 3-1

Iowa State

3-3 , 2-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

West Virginia

Iowa State

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

October 13, 2018 10:43 PM | Football

Box Score West Virginia-Iowa State Postgame Notes Game Photos

By: John Antonik

AMES, Iowa – True freshman quarterback Brock Purdy threw three touchdown passes and David Montgomery ran 28 times for a career-high 189 yards and a touchdown to lead Iowa State to a 30-14 victory over sixth-ranked West Virginia.

It was Montgomery's third career 100-yard rushing performance against the Mountaineers, totaling 445 yards in those three games against the WVU defense.

Purdy was equally impressive, completing 18-of-25 passes for 254 yards. Making his first career college start, Purdy frequently threw lob passes to his tall outside receivers and either completed them or drew pass interference penalties on West Virginia's smaller defensive backs.

"My hat's off to Iowa State, they played a heck of a game and shut us down for four quarters," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said."We've got to do a better job and I've got to do a better job of coaching to get our guys ready to play."

The Mountaineers were flagged nine times in all for 103 yards, or three more yards than Will Grier had passing tonight.

Grier completed just 11-of-15 passes for a mere 100 yards with one touchdown and an interception. It was his worst passing performance in 17 career games at WVU.

West Virginia's offense produced only nine first downs and 152 total yards, compared to Iowa State's 25 first downs and 498 total yards. WVU's longest sustained drive lasted five plays.

"That's the worst offensive performance I've seen in my 30 years of coaching," Holgorsen said. "Are they that good on defense? I don't know. Oklahoma State scored 42 (last week on Iowa State) and we scored seven. It's the worst I've ever seen. I didn't reach our offense - I didn't get them ready to play. I've got to do a better job."

Grier's 18-yard touchdown pass to David Sills V got West Virginia on the scoreboard first, but the Cyclones' secondary clamped down on Mountaineer receivers the rest of the game and forced Grier into making uncomfortable decisions in the pocket all night long.

He was sacked seven times and had to tuck the football and run it more often than he wanted. Even when Grier had time to throw it, he was unable to find open receivers.

West Virginia (5-1, 3-1) began the game running the football effectively with Kennedy McKoy, but soon got away from its ground game once the Cyclones got ahead 20-7 – the first time the Mountaineers have trailed this season.

A Purdy-to-Hakeem Butler 4-yard touchdown pass tied the game, and then the Cyclones took the lead on their next possession when Montgomery's running moved the ball to the WVU 2, where he also finished the drive going across the goal line from there untouched.

Early in the second quarter, following another WVU punt, Iowa State reached the end zone once again, this time when Purdy hooked up with tight end Charlie Kolar for a 19-yard touchdown when he slipped past safety Dravon Askew-Henry out in the flat and ran to the far pylon.

Previously, Askew-Henry had made an interception to give West Virginia a short field, setting up the Mountaineers' lone offensive touchdown of the game.

WVU's other score came with 2:58 left in the second quarter when Kenny Bigelow Jr. blocked Connor Assalley's 39-yard field goal attempt and Derrek Pitts Jr. picked up the football and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown.

It was West Virginia's first blocked field goal for a touchdown since Harold Kidd did it at Pitt on Oct. 15, 1994, when he returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.

Assalley also missed a PAT after Montgomery's first-quarter touchdown run and later saw his 46-yard field goal try on Iowa State's opening possession of the third quarter fall well short of the goal post.

It was the only good scoring opportunity for either team in the period. West Virginia's two third-quarter offensive possessions resulted in just two first downs (both on running plays) and two Billy Kinney punts.

Iowa State (3-3, 2-2) took possession of the football at its own 19 at the beginning of the fourth quarter and got a big third-down pass from Purdy to Butler for 19 yards, moving the ball to the West Virginia 45.

On the next play, Montgomery ran 21 yards to the Mountaineer 34 and two plays after that, Purdy threaded the needle to Deshaunte Jones through double coverage for a 32-yard touchdown, his third of the night.

Iowa State also got the two-point conversion try when Purdy hit Matthew Eaton on a quick slant to make the score 28-14.

The Cyclones added two more points with 5:14 remaining when Yodny Cajuste was called for holding in the end zone with Grier running for his life. Iowa State was able to run out the remaining 5:14 without giving up the football.

"They didn't come up with a magical defense to stop what we do, we didn't do anything right," Holgorsen said. "We didn't make plays. We didn't run fast. We didn't get off coverage, we didn't make good decisions, we didn't call good plays, we didn't block and we didn't play with effort. This is nothing new to me. I've coached offense for 30 years and I've got to do a better job of coaching offense."

It was Iowa State coach Matt Campbell's fifth victory in his last seven games against ranked teams and his first-ever win against West Virginia, which drops to 5-1, 3-1.

It was the Cyclones' second-ever victory against the Mountaineers, the first coming in Morgantown in 2013 in triple overtime.

The Cyclone fans rushed the field and remained there long after the game singing songs and celebrating their second home victory over a top 10-ranked team in as many years.

West Virginia is idle next Saturday and will face Baylor on Thursday, Oct. 25, at Milan Puskar Stadium. The Bears dropped a tough one at Texas earlier today.