The Texas Tech Red Raiders football team celebrates their 23-22 win over the Iowa State Cyclone during NCAA Football Week 10 at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, November 2, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

AMES — Iowa State's difficult fortunes throughout Big 12 play with its slow starts.

That troubling trend finally caught up with the No. 11 Cyclones on Saturday, as Texas Tech — a two-touchdown underdog — also had a strong finish, strutting out of a sold-out and rain-soaked Jack Trice Stadium with a 23-22 victory.

“If you leave it up to chance, right, and don’t do your job with great precision and detail, it’s tough,” ISU head coach said Matt Campbellwhose error-plagued team (7-1, 4-1) was seeking its first 8-0 start in the program's 133-year history. “Unfortunately we did that so many times tonight that it burned us.”

ISU had taken a 22-17 lead with a walk on wide receiver Carson Brown's 44-yard touchdown catch with 2:20 remaining, but the quarterback's two-point conversion pass Rocco Becht failed.

The Red Raiders then marched down the field in 1:47 and finally scored the game-winning touchdown on Tahj Brooks' five-yard run with 20 seconds left.

“I always feel with our defense that they are going to attack and stop, but unfortunately I missed the two-point conversion that could have helped us at the end of the game,” said Becht, who completed 23 of 39 passes for 299 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. “That hurts a lot. But you have to live with those decisions, wash them away and come back next week.”

Texas Tech (6-3, 4-2) ended a two-game losing streak in which it allowed an average of 47 points. Red Raiders quarterback Behren Morton drove his team 71 yards in less than two minutes, pushing the Cyclones from the dwindling ranks of the undefeated.

Brooks rushed for 122 yards to maintain his season-long streak of 100-yard games.

“I would just say we beat ourselves,” ISU cornerback said Myles purchasewho secured his first career interception late in the first half to set up Becht's first touchdown pass Jayden Higgins. “The penalties and the missed plays — honestly, I would say it’s just us.”

The Cyclones entered Saturday leading all FBS teams in fewest penalty yards per game (25.1). ISU more than doubled that number with 59 penalty yards against the Red Raiders — and several of those infractions came at crucial moments.

“It’s disappointing,” Campbell said. “Obviously you don’t want to play like that at the beginning of November and that’s what we did. So we own it. We live with it. We grow from it. And hopefully we have enough courage to correct that and move forward.”

Higgins had ten catches for 140 yards and scored his seventh touchdown of the season. Darien Porter and Purchase both intercepted a pass. Brown's only catch of the game came on a third-and-13 situation, but the defense – which had been strong since the first quarter – couldn't hold out for long, as is often the case.

“I think the reality is that at the end of the game it's a chess game and you're trying to put the defense in the best situation to be successful,” said Campbell, whose defense still held the Red Raiders to 13 points below their previous scoring average of 36.2 points. “They made one more play than we could defend, but I think our kids did a lot of really good things there. Again, our detail and precision were a little off.”

That's just enough to send the Cyclones to their first loss of the season, but as Campbell often says, his team is defined by how it finishes, not by any single game – regardless of outcome – along the way.

“This game will not define us in any way,” Campbell said. “And the reality is how we respond to that and the team we create through it is what will define the 2024 Iowa State Cyclone football team.” I think that gives us, for the first time, a big opportunity to respond now to the adversity of loss must. What does that look like? How do we grow from this? Man, do we have the same character that I would expect from us in the future? We'll see. What a great opportunity to grow.”