AMES - BYU didn’t just beat Iowa State on Friday night. The Cougars ripped open the game with explosive plays, and the Cyclones had no answer for any of it.
Behind quarterback Bear Bachmeier, BYU rolled to a 24-10 win at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, and the final margin barely captured how lopsided it looked. Bachmeier, the 6-2, 230-pound sophomore known more for his bruising efficiency than flash, suddenly turned the lights on with a big-play performance that powered the eighth-ranked Cougars to 506 total yards against Iowa State’s 200.
For Cyclones coach Jimmy Rogers, the verdict was immediate and blunt.
“You can’t give up explosive plays against a team like that and expect to win football games,” Rogers told reporters after the game. “We just weren’t good enough … at all.”
That kind of honesty fit the night. BYU improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12, while Iowa State dropped to 3-3 and 1-2 in league play heading into its lone bye week of the season.
Bachmeier made history in the process, becoming the first BYU quarterback since Taysom Hill in 2013 to throw for 300-plus yards and run for 100-plus yards in the same game. He also found five different receivers on completions of 20 yards or more, a brutal reminder of just how often Iowa State’s defense has been giving up chunk gains.
The Cyclones have now allowed five plays of 50 yards or more this season, a number that ties for 120th nationally and sits last in the Big 12.
“I’m kind of at a loss of words because I felt like we were going to come into this and be competitive in so many ways, and we really weren’t in so many ways,” Rogers said. “So, like I told the team, 3-3 is where we’re at. Doesn’t mean that that’s where we need to be, so we need to grow and get better.”
That issue has shown up most sharply on defense, where Iowa State has been hit by offenses like BYU, Utah and West Virginia - all of them among the top four teams in the conference in plays of 50 yards or longer. The Cyclones are also dealing with a wave of injuries on defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit’s unit, making the bye week feel less like a breather and more like a necessary reset.
“We need to take this time, for one, to heal from a physical standpoint, and then we’ve got to be able to take the next step mentally,” Rogers said. “I think there’s too much hesitation and lack of clarity on the defensive side of the ball to give up what we gave up, and we’ve got to shore those things up so our players - whoever’s out there - can play as fast as possible and put our guys in the right situation to have success.”
Iowa State’s offense didn’t do enough to offset the damage, either. The Cyclones produced their fewest yards in a game since 2018, and quarterback Jaylen Raynor had a rough night trying to get things moving. He finished 16 of 29 for 98 yards and a touchdown, and he was sacked three times, matching a season high.
“We came out slow,” Raynor said. “It starts with me.
I’ve gotta have everybody kind of get up for the game and get excited. Let’s roll.
It (was) a great opportunity - Friday night, ESPN. So if you can’t get excited for this type of opportunity, I don’t even know why you’re playing football.”
Now the focus turns to recovery and a reset. Iowa State heads into the bye at .500, then comes back with six guaranteed games left beginning with a trip to Arizona on Oct. 24.
“Three-and-three is not where we want to be, but it’s also not where we have to be,” Rogers said. “We’ve got to change the tide here.”
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