AMES –Breece Hall revived what had been a sluggish offense with a slick 47-yard touchdown run and Iowa State pulled away to beat Texas 30-7 on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 61,500 at MidAmerican Energy Field at Jack Trice Stadium.
Trailing 7-3 at halftime — ISU’s lowest scoring first half of the season — the Cyclones (6-3 overall, 4-2 Big 12) dominated the second half with an efficient offense and stifling defense to beat Texas for the third-straight time. Iowa State held the Longhorns (4-5, 2-4) to a season-low 207 yards while piling up 476 behind Hall and Brock Purdy, along with a little trickery.
Hall scored twice and finished with 136 yards on 19 carries after managing only 17 yards in the opening half. It was the 19th 100-yard game of his career and 18th multi-touchdown game.
Purdy completed 27-of-38 passes for 252 yards without an interception and started a crowd-pleasing trick play by tossing the ball back to wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson. Hutchinson then lofted the ball down the field to Tarique Milton, who was all alone at the Texas 20 and took it the rest of the way for a 49-yard touchdown that increased ISU’s lead to 17-7 midway through the third quarter.
Hutchinson also had another big game catching the ball, hauling in eight receptions for 96 yards on a perfect autumn night for football.
With only Andrew Mevis’ 24-yard field goal to show for the first half, the Cyclones struck quickly after taking the second-half kickoff. On first down at the Texas 47, Hall circled left end, cut to his right across the field, dodged a defender and outran the pursuit to the end zone for a 10-7 lead. It was Hall’s longest run on his home field and his 21st straight game with a rushing touchdown, moving him into a tie for third on the NCAA’s all-time list.
Hall has nine runs of 50-plus yards, all on the road. He also scored on a 2-yard run later in the third quarter and Mevis added field goals of 29 and 51 yards to complete the scoring and send Texas to its fourth straight loss.
Iowa State came up with five sacks, the most ever against Texas, and recovered two fumbles. The Cyclones held the Longhorns to 6 yards and one first down in the third quarter and outgained Texas 296-81 in the second half.
Texas had eight 3-and-outs and put together just one sustained drive, a 14-play, 78-yard march that ended with Hudson Card’s 4-yard touchdown hookup with Xavier Worthy on a shovel pass, giving the Longhorns their 7-3 lead.
Iowa State held Texas running back Bijan Robinson to 90 yards — 31 below his average. Card, a redshirt freshman who replaced starter Casey Thompson late in the first quarter, completed 14-of-23 passes for 101 yards.
Will McDonald IV became the Cyclones’ career leader in sacks, posting 2.5 to run his total to 27.5. JaQuan Bailey held the previous record of 25.5.
Enyi Uwazurike also was credited with 2.5 sacks, moving him into the top 10 on ISU’s career list with 13.5. It was the first multi-sack game of his career.
Andrew Mevis is now 15-for-17 on field goals this season (88.2 percent) and is 3-for-3 in his career from 50 yards or longer. The school record for accuracy is 94.1 percent (15-for-16) by Cole Netten in 2016.
Brock Purdy has now thrown 152 straight passes without an interception. His last pick came late in the Sept. 25 game at Baylor.
Iowa State plays at Texas Tech next Saturday, Nov. 13, at a time and on a network to be announced.
