Parker Scores Three Times as Utah Stays Unbeaten at Iowa State
Wayshawn Parker touched the ball 23 times and scored on three of them. That is the whole recap, but I will keep going. Utah's running back opened the game with a 54-yard touchdown run 16 seconds in, added a 1-yard score before halftime and caught a 13-yard pass from Devon Dampier with under three minutes left to close out a 31-17 win at Iowa State.
Utah led 14-0 after one quarter and 24-3 at the half, and it never trailed or let the game get tied. Iowa State did make it interesting: Jaylen Raynor ran in from 8 yards in the third quarter and threw a 22-yard touchdown to Dominic Overby in the fourth, which put the Cyclones within seven. Then Parker and Dampier finished it, and that was that.
The giveaways tell you why the margin was not closer. Utah turned the ball over zero times and Iowa State twice, both of them Raynor interceptions (he also threw 40 passes and completed 21 for 205 yards). The teams were almost even through the air, 206 yards to 205, but Utah ran for 207 on 31 carries against 111 on 33. Same number of attempts, nearly double the yards.
Utah is 4-0. Iowa State is 2-2, a record that looks about right for a team that threw two picks and gave up 207 rushing yards. Dampier did not need a big day, since the ground game did the work, and his 22.3 was a modest one by his standards. For fantasy owners, Parker's 46.9 points were a season high, and Raynor still finished with 22.9 despite the two picks, because the rushing touchdown covers a lot of sins.