The diminished ground attack has had an effect on quarterback Steve

AMES, Iowa -- West Virginia couldve packed it in after its Big 12 title hopes crashed last week.The Mountaineers, bolstered by freshman Martell Pettaway and a sensational afternoon from quarterback Skyler Howard, made sure that didnt happen.Howard threw for 330 yards and tied a career high with five touchdowns and No. 19 West Virginia rolled past Iowa State 49-19 on Saturday.Pettaway burned his redshirt and ran for 181 yards in his debut for the Mountaineers (9-2, 6-2 Big 12), who outscored Iowa State 28-3 in the second half.There have been three or four times where weve been real close to putting him in, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said of Pettaway, who had 30 carries. He was ready. Hes a smart kid. He looked good too.Howards 71-yard TD toss to Shelton Gibson and Pettaways 4-yard touchdown run, the first of his career, made it 35-19 late in the third quarter.Im saying something in the huddle. Hes like `Yeah, lets do this, Howard said of Pettaway.Justin Crawford, who ran for 331 yards against Oklahoma last week, was injured and replaced by Pettaway after two series. Crawford got bumped in the knee according to WVU running backs coach JaJuan Seider. He is expected to play next week.Kene Nwangwu had a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Cole Netten kicked four field goals to lead Iowa State (3-9, 2-7). But settling for three instead of converting for seven points -- and losing the turnover battle 4-0 -- killed the Cyclones chances.We didnt give up a touchdown to their offense. Thats winning defense, Holgorsen said.Jacob Park threw for 371 yards and David Montgomery ran for 141 yards for Iowa State, which saw its two-game winning streak snapped.Our inconsistency...you turn the ball over four times inside the 50-yard line against a team like that, its going to prohibit you from having great success, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.THE TAKEAWAYWest Virginia: The Mountaineers blew a chance at a possible conference title run with an ugly 56-28 loss to the Sooners last week. Beating the Cyclones on the road might not seem like much, but the Mountaineers showed resolve in a game that was close for a half.Iowa State: The improvement the Cyclones made from September to November was impressive, even though the game snowballed out of control Saturday. It figured to take a few years for Iowa State to become respectable in the Big 12. With a full offseason, a year of conference play under his belt and an emerging quarterback in Park, Campbell might get the Cyclones near bowl contention in 2017.POLL IMPLICATIONSWest Virginia tumbled nine spots last week. But the three teams ahead of the Mountaineers; Auburn, Nebraska and Houston, lost this week.THE NUMBERSThis was the third five-touchdown game for Howard, who also did it against Arizona State in 2015 and Youngstown State earlier this season. Gibson had 161 yards receiving on just three catches...Iowa State backup quarterback Joel Lanning, who ran for five TDs last week in a 66-10 blowout of Texas Tech, didnt register a pass or a carry. ...West Virginia threw for 341 yards and ran for 272. It also stopped Iowa State 11 times on 15 third-down chances.CYCLONES IN 2017Iowa State brings back the majority of its starters for 2017, including Park, Montgomery, standout receiver Allen Lazard and defensive backs Kamari Cotton-Moya and Brian Peavy. The offensive line will have to be rebuilt, but offensive coordinator/line coach Tom Manning was nominated for the Broyles Award, given to the nations top assistant, for cobbling together a decent unit out of thin air this season.UP NEXTWest Virginia closes the regular season against Baylor, which has lost five straight.---More college football at www.collegefootball.ap.org Jorge Lopez Jersey . Vettel, who has already clinched his fourth straight F1 title, enters the finale with a chance to equal Michael Schumachers 13 victories in a year and match the record of nine consecutive wins by Alberto Ascari in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. Chris Young Jersey . That left plenty of energy for pitching books and swatting away free agency questions. Anthony had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Knicks avenged an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own, beating the Boston Celtics 114-88 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. https://www.cheaproyals.com/1217a-humberto-arteaga-jersey-royals.html . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Danny Duffy Jersey . The deal is pending a physical, assistant general manager Bobby Evans said. Traded from Seattle to Baltimore on Aug. 30, Morse also can play first base and right field to give manager Bruce Bochy some flexibility in writing his lineup. Custom Kansas City Royals Jerseys . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Of the numerous unexpected CAA Football results this seasons first month yielded, Elons 27-10 win at then-No. 8 William & Mary last week may be the most likely one no one saw coming.So are the Phoenix ready to add their name to the expanding list of conference contenders following their biggest victory as a league member? And was all the lofty preseason praise heaped upon the Tribe actually warranted?Those still unanswered questions should be better explained Saturday, when the rising Phoenix (2-2, 1-0) host 17th-ranked Villanova (3-1, 1-0) and No. 19 William & Mary (2-2, 0-1) makes the traditionally tough trip to New Hampshire (2-2, 1-0).Having been outscored 78-20 in season-opening defeats to Gardner-Webb and Charlotte, Elon entered Zable Stadium a heavy underdog and left with its first win over a top-10 opponent since besting No. 6 Wofford in 2007. With the offense still adjusting to a season-ending injury to quarterback Connor Christiansen in Week 1, the resilient Phoenix compensated with superior special-teams play and a sound defensive effort that contained three fourth-down stops and three interceptions with the Tribe in enemy territory.Were still a work in progress -- we had some breakdowns here and there -- but I think the kids learned from this, Elon coach Rich Skrosky said. When you play hard and youre a physical football team on defense, usually the results are going to be pretty good.The Phoenix built a 17-0 first-half lead by capitalizing on two William & Mary breakdowns in the kicking game, one a blocked punt and the other a botched snap on a punt attempt. Their first touchdown drive was aided by another short field created when All-CAA punter David Petroni pinned the Tribe at the 1-yard line and the defense caused a three-and-out.Skroskys young squad has little time to savor its breakthrough win with three straight home games against perennial conference powers, as New Hampshire and No. 6 Richmond pay visits following Elons inaugural meeting with Villanova.Itll be a good barometer of where were at from a maturity standpoint, he said. I think theres been signs of some maturity as the years progressed, and this will be one of those other signs -- how do we prepare this week for another very good opponent coming off a good win over a very good team.Like Elon, Villanova has offset an inconsistent offense by being craftily resourceful in other areas. The Wildcats have produced four defensive touchdowns, with two coming in last weeks 31-14 win at Lafayette that was tougher than the final score indicated.(The defense) saved us this past weekend against Lafayette, they really did, coach Andy Talley remarked. We just didnt have a very good outing offensively, and when you have a defense that can actually score points for you or get the ball knocked down and turn it over with an opportunity to have short fields, youre always in great shape.ddddddddddddanoh Kpassagnon set the tone with a 25-yard fumble return score on the opening play. The 6-foot-7, 290-pound senior end and NFL prospect leads the CAA with four sacks and 8 1/2 tackles for loss.While Villanova hits the road with momentum from a three-game winning streak, William & Mary hopes to gain some following last weeks mistake-filled performance and a second consecutive slow start to the season. The Tribe also dropped their CAA opener while splitting the first four games of 2015, then ripped off six straight wins en route to a playoff appearance.Kendell Anderson led that surge by rushing for 789 yards and 11 touchdowns during the streak, but the standout running back has been limited to 89 yards and 24 carries thus far while battling shoulder and ankle injuries. Though Albert Funderburke has filled in capably, the promising freshman reportedly tore his ACL against Elon.The diminished ground attack has had an effect on quarterback Steve Cluley, with the usually steady senior having thrown a conference-high seven interceptions and completing just 56.4 percent of his throws.Were not clicking right now, wide receiver DeVonte Dedmon said. Were not all on the same page.Getting Anderson untracked will be essential to the Tribes chances of rebounding, as theyre 11-0 since the start of last season when rushing for 149 yards or more and 0-6 when held under that mark. They were held to 104 on 33 attempts by Elon.William & Mary piled up 325 yards on the ground in last Octobers 34-18 home win over New Hampshire, with Anderson accumulating 174 on 27 carries.Its an equally pivotal game for New Hampshire. Though Sean McDonnells team won its league opener last week at Rhode Island, a narrow loss at Dartmouth the previous Saturday has already left the Wildcats with little room for error in their quest to extend the longest active run of consecutive FCS playoff appearances to 13 years.UNH does return home in better spirits after putting forth what McDonnell termed our best full-game effort that we had all year in the 39-17 victory over URI. The Wildcats scored 17 fourth-quarter points to pull away and take some of the sting out of the Dartmouth game, in which the Big Green tallied 15 unanswered points in the final period to rally for a 22-21 win.The Tribe have been a major nemesis for New Hampshire in recent years, having won 11 of the last 13 meetings. However, theyve lost in their last two trips to Durham, including a 32-3 drubbing in 2014.Theyve gotten our number a bunch of times, McDonnell said. This ones huge for us. ' ' '