IOWA CITY, Iowa - Iowa didn’t exactly cruise through the Cy-Hawk game, but the Hawkeyes found the one kick that mattered.
Caden Buhr, a second-year non-scholarship player from Bettendorf, Iowa, drilled a 42-yard field goal with 15 seconds left Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium to lift No. 21 Iowa past Iowa State 16-13. The Hawkeyes were a 14-point favorite, yet spent plenty of the night digging out of an early hole before finally escaping with the win.
Buhr accounted for all three of Iowa’s field goals and finished the job after Iowa State’s own late try had threatened to flip the game again. The victory snapped Iowa’s two-game skid in the rivalry, with the Cyclones having won the previous two meetings on dramatic field goals of their own. It also gave Iowa control of all four of its traveling trophies, including the rivalry games against Iowa State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Iowa had to sweat out one final sequence after Iowa State completed a last-second pass to midfield in a play that appeared to come as time expired. Officials added one second back onto the clock, and the Cyclones lined up for another snap. But the game ended there because Iowa State had no timeout left and the clock started automatically once the ball was marked ready for play.
The Hawkeyes trailed 10-0 in the second quarter before pulling even by halftime and later matching Iowa State again in the fourth quarter. Hank Brown started at quarterback and played the full game after seemingly winning the job over Jeremy Hecklinski. Brown went 21 of 30 for 191 yards and also ran for Iowa’s only touchdown.
Kyle Konrardy had been the Cyclones’ late-game headache for Iowa in the last two seasons, but Buhr answered this time. Konrardy’s 54-yard kick with 6 seconds left beat Iowa 20-19 at Kinnick two years ago, and last year in Ames he connected from 54 yards with 1:52 remaining in a 13-10 Iowa State win.
Iowa State quarterback Jaylen Raynor completed 10 of 19 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown. The Cyclones also outgained Iowa on the ground, 138-93.
In Other News...
Iowa State Showed Something In Cy-Hawk Loss That Fans Will Debate
Iowa State left the Cy-Hawk matchup with plenty to argue about after taking an early 10-0 lead and then watching No. 21 Iowa claw back to a 16-13 win. The Cyclones did enough in spots to keep the game tight, and their defense had real positives to hang onto, especially with Iowa's rushing attack held to 93 yards.
Still, the second half told a different story for Iowa State's offense, which could not sustain drives once the game tightened up and let the momentum swing away. The result will linger because the Cyclones showed they could control stretches of the rivalry game, but they also left enough unfinished business for fans to wonder what this performance says about how far the offense can carry them when the margin gets thin. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Let Another Rivalry Gut Punch Slip Away Late
Iowa State spent much of the afternoon in a grinder of a rivalry game that felt exactly like one of those meetings where every yard has to be earned. No. 21 Iowa had to dig out of a 10-point hole to pull level, and both sidelines came away talking about how physical and competitive the matchup was, which only fit the tone of a matchup that never offered much margin for error.
The part that will sting the Cyclones is how close they were to forcing the issue late before the game slipped away in the final moments. A single defensive stand or one cleaner sequence at the end could have changed the entire conversation, but instead Iowa left with the kind of gut punch that lingers in a rivalry and sends Iowa State back to the film room wondering how a tightly contested afternoon turned so quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Just Gave Fans A Real Reason To Believe
Under new head coach Jimmy Rogers, Iowa State spent the offseason piecing together a roster with plenty of transfer-portal additions and not much outside belief attached to it. The early results have at least given the program something sturdier to stand on. After opening with a comfortable win over Southeast Missouri, the Cyclones followed by taking a ranked Iowa team deep into a rivalry game and showing they can handle the level of intensity that usually exposes a team this early in a new era.
For a fan base that wanted more than a rebuilding label, the encouraging part is not just the record, but the way Iowa State has looked competitive against better competition. The loss to the 21st-ranked Hawkeyes still leaves questions, of course, but it also suggested the Cyclones are not going to be an easy out while Rogers sorts out the rest of the roster. The bigger test now is whether that early hint of promise can turn into something more consistent once the schedule starts demanding it week after week. [Read more 🡒]