El Assico living up to its name as Iowa-Iowa State battle in futility

The annual game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones did not get off to a great start.

The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones meet annually. The past six meetings have gone the way of the Hawkeyes, but their start to the season was far from ideal, as they defeated South Dakota State by the narrow score of 7-3. Meanwhile, Iowa State beat Southeast Missouri State 42-10.

In the first half, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones had, well, far from the cleanest of games. If there was one play to exemplify that, it was when Cyclones running back Jirehl Brock looked to run into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown. Instead, he fumbled it, and Logan Klemp of the Hawkeyes recovered the ball in the end zone to regain possession.

Iowa-Iowa State gets off to rough start

If you were not watching the game, and curious how the first half played out, here is a better idea of it. Here are the ensuing drives after the Hawkeyes took a 7-0 lead on their second play of the game.

Punt. Punt. Punt. Fumble. Fumble. Punt. That was just how some of the remaining drives of the first half played out.

After the aforementioned punt by the Hawkeyes, the Cyclones were able to cut their deficit to 7-3 on a 22-yard field goal by Jace Gilbert. On the next two drives, both teams punted the ball back to the opposition. On the two drives after that, they ended on interceptions by Sam Petras and Hunter Dekkers.

To sum up the first half between the Hawkeyes and Cyclones — not great.

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