Iowa State had plenty of setup men Saturday. The Cyclones could never find a closer.
Quarterback Jerome Tiller completed 18 of 27 passes -- both career highs -- and passed for 155 yards. Freshman Josh Lenz caught seven passes for 63 yards and Alexander Robinson rushed for 87 yards.
When the Cyclones moved within sight of the goal line at Kyle Field, however, opportunities slipped away in a 35-10 loss to Texas A&M.
"We were moving the football, but not finishing a drive," Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said. "Fully executing and finishing a drive where the official throws his hands above his head at the end of it because you scored a touchdown."
Iowa State trailed 14-0 when Robinson took a direct snap on fourth-and-one and was thrown for a one-yard loss by Aggie linebacker Kyle Mangan at the 22-yard line.
Texas A&M led 21-0 when the Tiller lofted a pass over double coverage to the left side of the end zone. Marquis Hamilton got his hands on the ball, but it came loose as he hit the ground near the left sideline in the end zone. Grant Mahoney's 29-yard field goal with a second left gave the Cyclones their only points of the opening half.
Lenz had a catch that helped set up that score, and often picked up for extra yardage when he touched the ball.
"With a team that doesn't have a lot of athleticism, he's a guy that does," Rhoads said. "He has the ability to make people miss in the open field and he continues to show that. He had a potential big play that we left out there because the rascal didn't look the ball into his hands, and that's something that everybody does. But you've got to eliminate it if you are going to win football games."
The Cyclones challenged again early in the second half, moving from their 24 to the Aggie 6 in six plays before A&M's Justin McQueen stepped in front of Tiller's pass at the goal line for an interception.
On the next offensive possession, Iowa State moved to the A&M 16 before Tiller was sacked and fumbled. Tackle Kelechi Osemele recovered the ball, but Mahoney's field goal try missed wide right.
"We didn't score," Tiller said flatly. "It was just penalties and mistakes and we didn't capitalize when we had the chance."
Linebacker Jesse Smith, whose 13 tackles gave his six straight games with double figures in that category, said the missed opportunities also affected the Iowa State defense.
"There were plenty of times that we could have gotten off the field on third down," Smith said. "We missed way too many tackles and dropped a couple of interceptions. I think we did fine, but didn't make the plays when we had to. We were good mentally, but physically, we just didn't make plays when they were there."
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