Nebraska’s Letdown Proves Costly, 19-10 : Big Eight: Fifth-year senior quarterback, making his first start, leads Iowa State to upset victory.

Iowa State stunned No. 7 Nebraska by beating the Cornhuskers at their own game. The Cyclones controlled the line of scrimmage and ran the football.

Led by quarterback Marv Seiler, Iowa State posted some Nebraska-like rushing numbers Saturday and won, 19-10, for its first victory over the Cornhuskers since 1977.

Seiler, a fifth-year senior making his first start, ran 24 times for 144 yards as the Cyclones, 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the Big Eight, piled up 373 yards on the ground. Seiler’s big day included a 78-yard run that set up Iowa State’s only touchdown.

Ty Stewart kicked four field goals for the Cyclones and the defense did the rest, holding Nebraska to 192 yards rushing and 246 overall.

“We just wanted to execute our offense,” Seiler said. “We knew if we tried to pass, they would have come at us and killed us. We just tried to run the ball and use up the clock.”

Nebraska (7-2, 4-1) led the nation in rushing (351.1 yards per game) and scoring (43.3) and was coming off routs over Colorado, 52-7, and Kansas, 49-7, both nationally ranked.

But save for some scrambling by freshman quarterback Tommie Frazier in the first half, the Cornhuskers were unable to get their offense in gear against Iowa State’s charged-up defense. And the Nebraska defense couldn’t handle Iowa State’s triple-option game.

Iowa State ran it to perfection. The Cyclones had no turnovers and enjoyed a 14 1/2-minute edge in possession time.

“I think the big difference was that they played with a lot of emotion and it looked like our tank was a little bit dry today,” Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. “We played two emotional games in a row against Colorado and Kansas. We talked a lot about it this week, about the dangers of the situation, and I don’t know really how much sunk in.”

“We probably overlooked Iowa State,” Nebraska safety Tyrone Byrd said. “We weren’t mentally prepared.”