TOLEDO, Ohio — The action was exciting down the stretch. It was dramatic, and it was intense. It was a hotly-contested football game.
The result though, a 30-23 double- overtime loss by Iowa State to Toledo, was unremarkable.
It’s a defeat that does little to distinguish itself from the 48 others in Cyclones coach Paul Rhoads’ tenure now in its seventh season.
This defeat was, in almost every way, expected.
That, not the loss itself, is what is so disconcerting about the state of Cyclones football.
A loss to a Mid-American Conference team — admittedly a good one and on their home turf — for a Big 12 program should be a fluke or the mark of a down year.