Kansas 6 3 0 7—16
Iowa St. 0 7 21 0—28
First Quarter
Kan — FG Branstetter 34, 8:19.
Kan — FG Branstetter 42, 2:26.
Second Quarter
ISU — Lenz 62 punt return (Mahoney kick), 4:24.
Kan — FG Branstetter 38, :00.
Third Quarter
ISU — Robinson 2 run (Mahoney kick), 12:18.
ISU — Woody 3 run (Mahoney kick), 4:22.
ISU — Sh.Johnson 33 run (Mahoney kick), 1:18.
Fourth Quarter
Kan — Sims 5 pass from Mecham (Branstetter kick), :07.
A — 46,485.
TEAM STATISTICS
Kan ISU
First downs 20 21
Rushes-yards 42-119 40-232
Passing 149 168
Comp-Att-Int 22-33-1 16-26-0
Return Yards 3 74
Punts-Avg. 7-47.9 5-41.6
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 3-1
Penalties-Yards 6-50 8-90
Time of Possession 34:33 25:27
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Kansas, Quigley 14-69, Sims 19-60, McDougald 2-4, Patterson 1-(minus 6), Mecham 6-(minus 8). Iowa St., Robinson 17-117, Arnaud 13-59, Sh.Johnson 3-37, Woody 4-9, White 2-8, Reynolds 1-2.
PASSING — Kansas, Mecham 22-33-1-149. Iowa St., Arnaud 16-26-0-168.
RECEIVING — Kansas, Patterson 6-22, Sims 5-13, Quigley 4-56, McGriff 3-24, Biere 2-18, McDougald 1-11, Omigie 1-5. Iowa St., J.Williams 5-38, Darks 3-60, Reynolds 3-28, Franklin 3-25, Lenz 2-17.
AMES, Iowa (AP) — The calm in the Iowa State locker room at halftime ran counter to what had just happened on the field.
Favored by 19 points over lowly Kansas, the Cyclones were trailing 9-7 and scuffling on offense. Time for a fiery speech?
Nope. Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads simply reminded his team what had to be done in the second half and the Cyclones responded, scoring three third-quarter touchdowns that stood up for a 28-16 victory on Saturday.
“It was just coming out and executing, executing, executing,” running back Shontrelle Johnson said. “That’s what coach talked about. Kansas came in ready to play and we kind of came out a little bit flat. But we made a few adjustments and got it going.”
Josh Lenz returned a punt 62 yards for Iowa State’s lone first half touchdown and Austen Arnaud ignited the third-quarter outburst with a 37-yard pass to Darius Darks as the Cyclones, coming off their first victory ever over Texas, built a 28-9 lead.
Given up for dead after allowing 120 points in consecutive losses to Utah and Oklahoma, Iowa State (5-4, 3-2 Big 12) now needs only one victory in its last three games to become bowl eligible for the second year in a row.
“Our goal all season was to get to a bowl game, win a bowl game,” tight end Collin Franklin said. “It’s in our minds, but at the same time, we’ve done a good job so far focusing on the task at hand and focusing on the game that week.
“You’re not going to be able to get to a bowl game if you don’t do that.”
Keeping their focus this week shouldn’t be hard. The Cyclones host No. 14 Nebraska next Saturday.
Kansas (2-6, 0-4), meanwhile, continues to struggle under first-year coach Turner Gill and lost its 11th straight Big 12 game.
The Jayhawks, down to third-stringer Quinn Mecham at quarterback because of injuries, showed some spark in taking their 9-7 lead on Jacob Branstetter’s field goals of 34, 42 and 38 yards. They couldn’t maintain it, but still came out looking better than their three previous games, in which they were outscored 159-24.
“I thought our team made some progress this game,” Gill said. “Our guys came out and continually played hard. I thought they did some good things. The defense continued to play hard. I thought our offense did some good things in the circumstance that Quinn Mecham had his first start.”
Iowa State managed only five first downs in the opening half and got on the scoreboard only through Lenz’s spectacular punt return, the first by an ISU player for a score since 2006.
