Texas A&M
IOWA STATE
Iowa State 42, Texas A&M 14
Oct 29, 2005 | Football
October 29, 2005
Todd Blythe set an Iowa State record with four touchdown catches and Stevie Hicks rushed for 122 yards and two more scores as the Cyclones routed Texas A&M 42-14 on Saturday.
Bret Meyer went 20 of 32 for 371 yards and four touchdowns, and the Cyclones (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) beat the Aggies for the first time in eight meetings.
Blythe caught a career-high eight passes for 214 yards, the second highest single-game mark by an Iowa State receiver. His four TD catches was also a record for a Texas A&M opponent.
Texas A&M (5-3, 3-2), meanwhile, had a five-game home winning streak snapped.
The Cyclones piled up 549 yards and going 11 of 18 on third-down conversions.
Hicks, who missed two games earlier this month with a sprained ankle, started the Cyclones' first drive with a 10-yard run, foreshadowing the dominance to come. Iowa State glided down the field on its opening drive and Blythe capped the march with a 1-handed touchdown catch.
The Aggies got more than half their rushing yards on Courtney Lewis' 73-yard touchdown run with 1:27 left in the opening quarter. The run by Lewis was the longest against Iowa State this season and Lewis' longest run since an 86-yard dash against Baylor in 2003.
Meyer completed 13 of his first 19 passes. He threw a 23-yarder to Austin Flynn to give the Cyclones a first-and-goal at the A&M 3 and Hicks scored two plays later, his first TD since the season opener against Illinois State.
Facing third-and-20 on the Cyclones' first drive of the second half, Meyer scrambled 21 yards to spark another touchdown march. On another third down, Meyer scrambled to his right and lofted a pass to Blythe, who shed a tackler and sprinted for a 53-yard touchdown.
Hicks went over 100 yards rushing on the Cyclones' next drive. Meyer found Nickell for a 24-yard gain on third-and-3, then hit Blythe in the corner of the end zone with 4:12 left in the third quarter.
The maroon-clad crowd of 86,172 -- the fifth largest in Kyle Field history -- desperately tried to rally the Aggies, but Meyer silenced them again with a 63-yard TD pass to Blythe down the sideline. The pass play was the longest of the season for Iowa State, surpassing the 53-yarder from the third quarter.
Lewis fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Hicks barreled into the end zone four plays later.
The Aggies had rushed for 635 yards in their last two games, but were held to 126 against the nation's 20th-best rushing defense.
Texas A&M Postgame Notes
- Senior Jason Carter's nine catches (for 72 yards) were a career-high, bettering his eight-catch effort against Texas State.
- Junior Courtney Lewis' 73-yard rushing touchdown ranks as the longest rush by an Aggie in 2005 (previous long was a 63-yarder by Reggie McNeal). It was the second-longest rush of Lewis' career behind an 86-yarder from 2003 against Baylor. It also ranked as the longest rush against Iowa State in 2005.
- Quarterback Reggie McNeal moved past Kevin Murray (1983-86) to No. 2 on the Aggies' all-time career passing yards chart with 6,703 yards. He also moved ahead of Mark Farris (1999-2002) to No. 3 on A&M's career completions list with 451 and No. 4 on the career attempts chart with 791. McNeal also increased his school record for career total offense to 8,568 yards.
- McNeal's 39 pass attempts today were a career high and his 23 completions tied his career high. His previous highs in both categories came last year against Colorado and Tennessee (23-of-38 in each game).
FOR THE RECORD --- Game captains were Jason Carter, Ty Branyon, Trey Brooks and Archie McDaniel. ... The 12th Man was John Ray, a junior from Giddings, Texas. It is the seventh straight game that Ray has been the 12th Man and 20th game of his career. ... Today's attendance of 86,172 was the fifth-largest crowd in Kyle Field history.
Iowa State Postgame Notes
- Bret Meyer's four passing touchdowns today are a career high. He has four career 300-yard passing games. His 371 passing yards are a career high, and ranks fifth on ISU's single-game list.
- Meyer now has 3,846 career passing yards, moving past Bret Oberg (3,602; 1988-89) for sixth all-time.
- Todd Blythe's four touchdowns on the day are a career best (3 vs. Northern Illinois, 9/18/04) and set a new ISU single-game record.
- Blythe now has 14 career touchdown receptions, and is tied for third on ISU's career chart with Lane Danielsen (2000-03) and Tracy Henderson (1982-84).
- Blythe's eight catches (tie) and 214 yards are career highs. The 214 yards are second in ISU history to Tracy Henderson's 217 at Texas A&M in 1984. Blythe is the fourth ISU receiver ever to top 200 yards.
- Blythe now has 1,475 career receiving yards, moving from outside the ISU top 10 up to sixth all-time.
- Iowa State's 549 yards are its most in Big 12 play since 2002 (602 vs. Missouri). It is the second-highest offensive output ever in a road conference game (571 at Colorado, 1982).
- LaMarcus Hicks' fourth-quarter interception is his fourth pick of the season, leading the team.
- Iowa State's 42 points are its most ever in the state of Texas, and most ever against a team from the state of Texas. The previous best was 41 vs. Baylor in 2001 (41-0) and 41 vs. Texas in 1999 (41-44). The previous road best was 33 at Texas in 1998 (33-54).
- Iowa State has scored on its opening drive of the last two games, the only two times this has happened this season.
- Troy Blankenship's 50-yard punt in the first quarter and his 57-yard fourth-quarter boot give him 10 50+ yard punts this season in 40 attempts.
- Courtney Lewis' 73-yard touchdown run for A&M is the longest run from scrimmage and longest touchdown run given up by ISU in 2005. The previous longest run from scrimmage by an ISU opponent was 36 yards by Iowa's Albert Young, and the longest TD run was 4 yards by Oklahoma State's Julius Crosslin.
- Bret Meyer's second-quarter quarterback sneak on fourth down is ISU's eighth fourth-down conversion in 10 attempts (80.0%) this season.
- Stevie Hicks' second-quarter touchdown run is his first TD since the third quarter of the Illinois State game (Sept. 3).
- Nick Leaders' second-quarter sack is his fourth of the season, which leads all ISU defenders.
- Bret Meyer's third-quarter 53-yard TD pass to Todd Blythe was the longest TD pass of the season for ISU until Blythe's 63-yard score in the fourth quarter. The previous long was 12 yards by Austin Flynn (vs. Iowa) and Walter Nickel (vs. Oklahoma State).
- DeAndre Jackson's third-quarter interception is his third pick of the season.
- Stevie Hicks now has two 100-yard rushing games this season, and eighth of his career. His eight 100-yard games tie for 10th on the ISU career list.
- Hicks is the first Cyclone to rush for 100 yards against Texas A&M since 1997 (Darren Davis, 30-106-0). Troy Davis (39-130-1 in 1996) and Dexter Green (21-148-1 in the 1978 Hall of Fame Bowl) are the only other ISU players to reach 100 yards vs. A&M.
- Hicks' two rushing TDs are a career high.
- Hicks' 122 rushing yards are a season best.
- Blythe is the third Cyclone to have 100 receiving yards against A&M. The other two are Jack Whitver (6-111-1 in 2001) and Tracy Henderson (11-217-1 in 1984). All three of those games were played in College Station.
- From the second quarter of last week's game through the today, ISU has outscored its opponents 72-14.
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
QB REGGIE McNEAL-- "We've been killing ourselves. That's the bottom line. We are killing ourselves. We'd have a drive, then one or two penalties put us back. You can't start behind the chains like we were. You don't need me to tell about the mood in the locker room. Whenever you lose it's never a good mood in the locker room. If we want to win it's on us. We've got to go out and win. We need to get that confidence back within ourselves. We just have to play our game and come out the victors."
RB COURTNEY LEWIS-- "I think I came back strong. I played a little bit last week against K-State. I felt pretty good. I told Coach (Fran) I was ready to play this week."
LB ARCHIE McDANIEL-- "We came in here and they did everything we prepared for all week. There wasn't anything they did we haven't seen on film. The bottom line was we didn't show up today. That's all there was to it. We can't dwell on today. We've got three more games. November will be a tough month for us. In order to be successful in November we can't dwell on what happened today. It was a great atmosphere to come and play in today. I wasn't expecting this to happen but it's something that happened, and you've got to take it and learn from it I guess. It hurts bad, but we've got to get ready for Texas Tech now."
HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE-- "Iowa State really played well. They had no turnovers today. They had four drives of 80 yards or more and played good, solid defense, and we just did not seem to have enough answers for anything that they did. They've been in this position of playing well on the road and coming up just a little short and they got it all out of their system today. They played a fine game. They did a good job of keeping us off-balance and mixing up their play calls. We didn't get them behind the chains. We never got into an offensive rhythm. They made us do some other things and we were just always in difficult situations other than the first half and never got to a point in our game plan where we could utilize only part of it. We didn't make plays on the ball in the air very well. They moved their quarterback around a lot and we had a hard time containing him a couple of times and he was good at throwing away and they found every spot that was there pretty much most of the time."
WR JASON CARTER-- "Man, the mood is rough. Everyone's feeling bad, especially losing here at home. I thought we were going to protect Kyle better than what we did. I take the blame because I guess I didn't get the guys pumped up enough in the locker room before hand. We will definitely bounce back. That's a fact. We will bounce back and you will see a different team going to Lubbock. We stopped ourselves. Reggie went for a touchdown and we got a holding penalty. We'd start driving then put ourselves behind the chains, and you can't do that on first down. You have to win on first down. I feel like we were flat, I felt like we didn't come out there ready to play. It's just really frustrating watching because with the month of November coming up, it's going to be tough on us. But we will come together. We're going to prove everybody wrong."
DL RED BRYANT-- "They kept us off balance and, once again, they made big plays and, once again, we didn't stop the big plays. So you've just got to give Iowa State credit today. We just have to step up and make big plays across the board, starting with the leaders. I'll call myself out time to time. We all have a sense of urgency and we've just got to make plays."
Iowa State Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH DAN McCARNEY --- "This was a great day for Iowa State. We have tremendous respect for Coach Fran and the Aggies. That was about a complete a victory as we've had since I've been at Iowa State. We left no doubt today who the better team was. I'm just real proud of my kids. I'm real happy for my kids and coaches. We've been through a lot this year. If you don't have real character and leadership and resolve, you can't come back from stuff like that. The offense was outstanding. It all starts with the offensive line. Brett (Meyer) was as good as he's been since he's been our starter. Todd Blythe was just sensational. There wasn't a better receiver in college football today than Todd Blythe. Protection was great and I just think Brett's decision-making and accuracy were outstanding. Our defensive staff did a great job. We tried to play smart. We tried to contain and not give them big plays."
RECEIVER TODD BLYTHE - "I've been waiting for a day like that, to go out and make good plays. It was close (to a perfect game), but obviously we have to strive to get better this week in practice. We need to improve on the things that we made mistakes on today. There were a lot of mistakes out there, but we were able to come out and make big plays to cover that up. We have plenty to improve on and we're nowhere near perfect yet. Last week really helped in getting my confidence back. Obviously, this game did, too. Brett and the coaches have confidence in me. It felt good to go into this game knowing everybody was behind me. Just put the ball up and hopefully I'll make a play. It's a combination of all those things. A lot of it is Brett putting the ball where it needs to be. On more than one occasion today, he put the ball up where only I could go get it. The DB's didn't have a chance. That makes my job a lot easier."
