No. 14 Iowa State seeks "complementary football" balance in road game at Arkansas State

AMES — Iowa State defensive coordinator Jon Heacock identified a troubling trend.

Now he’s trying to discover the root cause of it.

The issue?

The No. 14 Cyclones’ defense’s tendency early this season to surrender a touchdown right after the offense drives into the end zone.

The upshot? Heacock and his staff are working on it — and hope to begin bucking that trend in when ISU (3-0) meets Arkansas State (1-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) on the road.

“That’s one area we’re talking about and we’re looking at it as coaches, too,” said Heacock, whose defense is allowing an average of 8.6 points in the second half over the past 55 games. “What are we calling? What’s different? What’s happening? But we’ve gotta be able to stop people when our offense scores and try to get some more margin.”

Here’s what Heacock’s talking about:

* In the season-opening, 24-21, win over Kansas State in Ireland, all three of the Cyclones’ touchdowns were immediately mirrored by the Wildcats.

* The 55-7 win over South Dakota in the home opener doesn’t fit the trend, but the Coyotes did score their only touchdown after ISU punched it in for six points moments earlier.

* And in last week’s 16-13 home win over Iowa, the Hawkeyes drove for their lone touchdown late in the first half right after the Cyclones had celebrated in the end zone.

So the issue is real, even as the solution has proved to be elusive.

“We have to find ways to go out there with a mindset — and again, we’ve gotta sort it out as coaches,” Heacock said. “It’s gotta be something we pay attention to, because it’s something that can allow (us) to get the ball back for our offense.

“It’s not that we’re not trying. That’s not it. We’re playing good folks, too, and they’re trying to score after we score, so it’s competition and all that. But it’s something to pay attention to and we’re certainly diving into it.”

The Red Wolves — who lost 56-14 at Arkansas last Saturday — should be a good team to test out Heacock’s fix-it plans. The Cyclones are three-touchdown favorites, but that’s largely because of Arkansas State’s early defensive performances. The Red Wolves’ offense is averaging a solid 388.5 yards per game and features a true dual-threat quarterback in Jaylen Raynor — one of the team’s handful of returning starters.

“They’ve got great skill,” ISU head coach Matt Campbell said. “So on both sides of the ball, the video helps you, our experiences of our past failures (in non-Power Four road games) help you, and the reality of it is, man, it’s game four, and there’s a lot on that video tape from (last) Saturday that we didn’t do well, that we need to do better if (we’re going) to be the team we want to be.”

That’s true in all phases of the game for the Cyclones, but moving in that positive direction hinges on the defense coupling with the offense to play complementary football.

“I said this Saturday: Great teams get better,” Campbell said. “And the thing that can cause you not to get better is either you think you’ve arrived, and that’s ego and entitlement, or there’s physical fatigue that you’re not tough enough, or (have) the character, to get through. All those things will be tested with our football team right now.”

INJURY UPDATE

Campbell said starting offensive guard Trevor Buhr should be available on Saturday, but special teams star Aiden Flora and linebacker Carson Willich remain “questionable.”

“I think Trev, we feel really confident that he’s got a chance to be back — at least in a limited role,” Campbell said of Buhr, who missed the first three games of the season because of an illness. “Maybe a full-time role, (but) we’ll see what that looks like this weekend.”

ARRAY OF AWARDS

ISU kicker Kyle Konrardy was named the Bulsworth Trophy’s Walk-on of the Week and was honored as a Lou Groza Award “Star of the Week” after beating Iowa with a 54-yard field goal for the second season in a row. … Cyclone nose guard Domonique Orange earned the Chuck Bednarik National Player of the Week nod after notching a career-high six tackles and a quarterback hurry in the Cy-Hawk win.

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com