What Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers said after losing to Utah

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Although his team got within 24-17 in the fourth quarter against the No. 15 Utah Utes on Saturday after trailing 24-3 at halftime, Iowa State Cyclones head coach Jimmy Rogers was still unimpressed with his team’s performance in an eventual 31-17 loss, Iowa State’s second of the season.

“I think we came out and shot ourselves in the foot,” Rogers said. “You could feel the energy at half, and the message was one play at a time. One play at a time. Although that’s always the message, they kind of locked into that, and you could feel the momentum when we were having some success.

“The confidence started to grow when our offense started to have success, but when it comes down to playing a team like that, that puts you in space with what they do, they’re so multiple that you got to be able to stop the quarterback and the running back. Us not being able to tackle at all today led to this (loss), and we need to get better. You can’t give up 200 yards on the ground and in the air and expect to win a football game.”

Rogers, whose offense struggled in the first half, said his offense started making plays in the second half.

“Eight minutes of offense, staying on the field, executing down the field was a huge success for us,” Rogers said of the first possession of the second half and what adjustments his team made to create some rhythm on offense.

“We knew what they were doing. It’s just whether we could win those reps or not. We weren’t shocked with them playing man. That’s what they showed, and they were in Cover 2 a lot, and then they started to blitz. It’s about calling the right play at the right time against certain coverages.”

Iowa State’s offense recorded 316 yards against Utah’s 411, something Rogers said “wasn’t good enough.”

All day long, Rogers’ team struggled to wrap up the Utes and bring them to the ground on defense, specifically Utah running back Wayshawn Parker, who bounced off tackles left and right to record 174 yards on the ground and another 65 in the passing game.

“The defense, we didn’t stand up. We didn’t get off the field,” Rogers said. “Part of that is maybe a lack of, well, surely a lack of the ability to make space tackles, and those running backs are really good, too.”

When it mattered most at the end of the game, the Cyclone defense could not give the ball back to its offense when the team was still only down a score.

“We had an opportunity to give the ball back to our offense, you know, down one score, and we just failed to do that,” Rogers said.

Utah’s last scoring drive was representative of the Cyclone defense all game long, Rogers said.

“The linebackers didn’t tackle well enough. When you play triple option football, you know, I would say that’s always been a highlight so far…I mean, just the amount of missed tackles in space showed up everywhere. Top-down, safety tackles showed up, our inability to get off blocks on the perimeter and the one guy make it down, and you saw that in the third (quarter). You saw that we were able to do that, and you’ve seen it thus far throughout the season,” he said.

“So, a little bit disappointing. I think at times we were just throwing our bodies in there and we were over-pursuing ‘cause they’re explosive, and those guys were cutting against the grain on run plays, and so although everybody’s feeling like you got to run to the football, you also have to be able to do your job and make plays and own your gap and be fundamentally sound in what you’re trying to do in the run game. There’s no hiding what we put out on the field today.”

Surely, tackling will be a point of emphasis for Rogers and his staff as they prepare to face West Virginia in a week.

“Credit coach (Morgan) Scalley and Utah. That’s a really well-balanced team,” Rogers said. “I thought their (defensive) line played really well and forced us to somewhat be one-dimensional, but overall, we got to learn and grow from this. This is just really the start. We got a whole season left to go, and we got a tough one next week.”

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