Pete: Taking Heacock, Rasheed for granted is the real fact of life

Right from the top, let’s get this out there:

Iowa State’s defense has been so good during Matt Campbell’s eight-plus seasons as the coach, that we (yes, that includes everyone) take it for granted that Jon Heacock’s players will eventually win the day. There’s a reason Notre Dame, when new coach Marcus Freeman was assembling a staff, expressed more than passing interest in the Cyclones’ defensive gem.

We’re Notre Dame. Everyone wants to coach, and play, for the mighty Irish. Ha.

Well, Iowa State ain’t too bad of a place to be, where Heacock and defensive line coach Eli Rasheed, are easily the most taken for granted coaches on the staff.

That’s right. They’ve been so good over the years, that we just expect them to always be that way. There’s nothing wrong with that thinking. Actually, it’s a show of respect, but sometimes that fact of college football life goes too much under the radar.

Look at Saturday’s 20-19 victory in Cy-Hawk – at Kinnick Stadium, no less. Specifically, compare the halves (and yes, I know the Hawkeyes’ offense still isn’t very good). First half: 36 plays, 196 yards and 13-0 Iowa lead. Second half: 31 plays, 107 yards, a touchdown -- and let us not forget a couple huge first-half goal-line stands.

That’s Heacock. That’s Rasheed. It’s what they do, and Saturday, they were at their best – with starting linebackers Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin sidelined. Take away some of Kaleb Johnson’s dandy runs, and Saturday was such a brilliant Cyclones defensive day, that Hawk All-American tight end Luke Lachey (four targets) didn’t even catch a pass.

Your best offensive player, or at least one of the best, being a non-factor, would be like Rocco Becht not getting the ball to Jaylin Noel (we’ll get to that in a few). An All-American not touching the football against a defense minus its top linebackers?

That’s Rasheed’s defensive line disrupting Lachey at the point of attack. It’s the rest of the defense contributing when he’s in his pass-catching comfort spots. It’s the taken for granted stuff Heacock’s guys do so well.

I even read and heard people saying Iowa blew the 13-0 lead it had in the middle of the third quarter. Blew the lead? Iowa State took away that lead, by being the superior team at the appropriate times. Blew the lead? More disrespect for a team that’s now ranked 21st. What’s wrong with giving credit to those that deserve it – like cornerback Darien Porter (two picks)? Like the entire Cyclones coaching staff, whose halftime alterations were mostly perfect?

Blew the lead? Whatever.

And those goal-line stands. I’ve read where some people questioned Iowa’s play calling. Bunk. Iowa State was so well prepared for what was coming, that twice in the first half, the team that scored 34 second-half points a week earlier against Illinois State, was forced to kick field goals on drives the Cyclones stuffed inside the 5-yard line.

And by the way, which team had the best defense during the last two Iowa City Cy-Hawk games?

© Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK

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If you were concerned that, by the time Iowa State swapped out a non-existent rushing game with its very good passing game – that it’d be too late to turn Cy-Hawk deficit into Cy-Hawk victory – you weren’t alone. Some Cyclone fans among the gang at the Wild Rose casino’s Luckys Sport Grill in Jefferson, wondered, too.

That’s where Hawkeye legend Ed Podolak and I watched the game together, offering in-casino commentary over the loud speaker to anyone that cared to listen. At halftime Saturday, an Iowa State fan asked me if, and when, the Cyclones’ offense would include more Air raid than ground stoppage?

I said “be patient. There’s still 30 minutes left.” I think my words resonated, but I don’t know for sure.

Anyway, Iowa State’s emphasis switched. Becht got the ball to big-play makers, Noel and Higgins. The Hawkeyes didn’t react very well, and . . . boom . . . Kyle Konrardy’s 54-yard field goal with 6 seconds to play made it a red state (no political insinuation intended) again.

Forget the Cyclones’ offensive line still being a work in progress. The moral of this game, once again, is that this Iowa State coaching staff isn’t so stuck in their ways (as it sometimes appears), to flip to the passing pages of the play book.

It took four games last season to do it. We’ve seen glimpses of it during the two games of this young, and promising season. Undoubtedly, we’ll see more during what can be a wonderful season.

Becht completed passes for 67 yards during a scoreless first half. He was 13 of 18 for 205 yards and two touchdowns in the final two quarters. His completion average jumped from 6.7 yards in the first half, to 15.8 yards a catch after halftime.

Oh, to be a fly on the halftime wall in the offensive and defensive strategy rooms.

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So now what?

Iowa State doesn’t play again until hosting 2-0 Arkansas State on Sept. 21. Is a Saturday without a football game beneficial after just two weeks?

I’d say no. My preference would be get the non-conference season over, and then have a bye week.

But that’s just me.

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