PETE: Iowa State’s goals are still possible, including, yes, making the College Football Playoffs

First-and-goal at the 1-yard line, Iowa State trailing by four points with 14 minutes to play in regulation against Texas Tech at Jack Trice Stadium. After 46 minutes of sometimes head-shaking offensive execution and plays, of on-again and off-again defense, the Cyclones were finally going to pull off the comeback we’d seen throughout this historic football season, until . . .

False start penalty, one of eight penalties for 59 yards we saw throughout this too-many penalties game. Carson Hansen rushes for no yards. Hansen rushes for 2 yards. Rocco Becht rolls right and throws low and short in the end zone for Jayden Higgins.

Fourth-and-goal from the Texas Tech 3?

Kyle Konrardy field goal on the end of a drive that defined this 23-22 Cyclones loss.

“We own it,” coach Matt Campbell said. “Hopefully we’ve got enough courage in ourselves and move ourselves forward.”

Hopefully, Saturday’s perplexing game won’t define the rest of the season, because there’s still plenty more wonderful goals to accomplish. The Cyclones will be favored in their remaining games -- against Kansas, Cincinnati, Utah and Kansas State.

Score a touchdown on any of those four plays inside the 5-yard line, and the Iowa State football narrative likely changes to Tuesday and the first College Football Playoffs ratings.

Instead, some fans may be wondering if expectations, after watching the first seven games, included too much Cyclones invincibility, and not enough reality that, after winning each and every game, Campbell’s team, on this occasion, was not in a position to match every opponent’s best shot.

There’s still plenty to play for, including Jerry World for a championship-game against BYU or Colorado. Win that game, and Iowa State is the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoffs.

Texas Tech debacle? What Texas Tech debacle?

That’s where this program is right now -- and if anyone can rally these Cyclones in the final four regular-season games, it’s Campbell. Sometimes, it’s almost like he thrives on adversity. When the going gets tough, this football lifer from Massillon, Ohio gets tougher.

We’ve seen it since he became the coach. We’ve seen it from his coaches and the players. It’s been a staple of the program. We’ll see it again – like we saw it when the Cyclones went on to lead 22-17 Saturday with just more than 2 minutes to play, after Carson Brown’s brilliant 44-yard catch-and-touchdown run.

It’s what happened a couple drives earlier, however, that capsulized the game for Iowa State – primarily the penalties and lack of execution.  

You can’t mess up on what should have been a freebie drive. The point differential between touchdown and field goal can be the difference between keeping the unbeaten dream alive, and needing to win each remaining game to make the Big 12 championship.

“It just wasn’t us,” Becht told reporters. “When a team plays like that, you deserve to lose.” 

We’d seen Iowa State rally from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to beat UCF. We saw the Cyclones shake off a slow start to win at Iowa on Konrardy’s 54-yard field goal with 6 seconds left at Kinnick Stadium. We saw the linebackers rally around adversity that has included injuries to nearly every player at the position on the depth chart.

Saturday, we had all that, and more, in the back of minds during that faulty drive that started at the Texas Tech 1. We had it in our memory bank when Brown turned his only receiving target into a touchdown.

Iowa State once again was showing its invincibility.

“This game will not define us in any way, shape or form,” Campbell said during his postgame press conference. “How we respond to it, and the team that we become through it, is really what will define the 2024 Iowa State Cyclones football team.

"This gives us a great chance . . . to now have to respond to the adversity of a loss. What does that look like? How do we grow from it?

My hunch is that Iowa State will respond from this loss with the determination and aggressiveness we’ve seen throughout Campbell’s tenure in Ames.

(Randy Peterson can be reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close)