Caden Buhr had been picturing this one for a long time.
With 15 seconds left Saturday night in Iowa City, the second-year kicker stepped in and drilled a 42-yard field goal to lift No. 21 Iowa past Iowa State 16-13 in another tight chapter of the in-state rivalry.
“I think I probably every day envision a type of kick like that,” Buhr said. “That’s kind of the mind of a kicker. You’re trying to do everything you can to try to put the ball between the uprights, live up to the dream.”
For Buhr, the moment carried extra weight. The Bettendorf, Iowa, native grew up around these games and said the setting felt familiar in the best possible way.
“It's a super cool rivalry,” said Buhr, who grew up in nearby Bettendorf, Iowa. “I grew up going to games here all the time.
My dad had season tickets, so I've watched a lot of Iowa-Iowa State games. So to be here, be in this moment, it’s truly a dream come true.”
Iowa’s winning drive started at its own 45 and covered 31 yards in nine plays before stalling at the 24. Xavier Williams was stopped for no gain on third-and-1, bringing Buhr back out for the decisive kick. The snap was high, but Buhr still knocked it through.
“It was a surreal moment,” Iowa quarterback Hank Brown said. “That entire field-goal unit did such a good job. Super impressed with them and impressed with Caden's clutch ability.”
Buhr’s winner was his third field goal of the night. He also connected from 32 yards to tie the game with 6:22 remaining, and earlier drilled a 45-yarder after Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run helped Iowa erase a 10-0 second-quarter deficit.
“Probably the best thing in the equation is we fell down 10, and fought our way back,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.
The finish got messy when Iowa State moved the ball to its own 49 after Jaylen Raynor hit Carter Pabst for 24 yards. It looked as if the clock had expired after Pabst was tackled inbounds, but replay showed one second remained. Iowa State had no timeouts left, and there wasn’t enough time to get a snap off once the ball was set.
“We knew it was going to come down to the wire,” Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers said. “It took every bit of that game, but we ran out of clock.”
Iowa State had grabbed a 10-0 lead in the second quarter and made Iowa work for everything. The Hawkeyes managed only 284 yards of offense to the Cyclones’ 255, but still found a way to survive.
“They made everything really tough for us,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz also said after the game that the result should serve as a useful reminder with Big Ten play coming in two weeks.
“There's more of that coming, more of that coming for us,” Ferentz said.
The physical tone of the night wasn’t lost on him either.
“I think both teams are going to feel this one for a while,” he said.
Rogers, in his first season after taking over a roster without a returning starter from last year, said his team came close but couldn’t finish the job.
“I'm proud of the locker room for how we played, but we still lost," Rogers said.
The game also carried a little extra edge for Iowa receiver Tony Diaz. During his weekly press conference Tuesday, Rogers called him “Nate Diaz.” Diaz answered with eight catches for 95 yards, then made sure to mention the slip afterward.
“He knows my name now,” Diaz said.
Iowa improved to 2-0 and will host Northern Iowa next Saturday. Iowa State fell to 1-1 and will host Bowling Green next Saturday.
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 A Statement Cy-Hawk Win Slip Away Late
Iowa State had the kind of early edge that can make a Cy-Hawk win feel like it is already taking shape, building a 10-0 lead and leaning on a defense that had Iowa scrambling to find a rhythm. But the game never fully loosened for the Cyclones, as the Hawkeyes kept answering enough to stay in striking distance and turn a rivalry day that looked promising into a tense, possession-by-possession fight down the stretch.
Iowas rally kept the pressure on Iowa State until the final moments, with the Hawkeyes tying the game twice before the finishing kick settled it late. For the Cyclones, it was a missed chance to keep their recent run of dramatic rivalry victories going after they had taken the previous two meetings on late field goals, a reminder that in this series even a solid start can disappear fast when the game reaches its sharpest edge. [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 🡒]