FACTS & STATS: Site: Jack Trice Stadium (43,000) -- Ames, Iowa. Television: Versus. Home Record: Nebraska 3-2, ISU 2-1. Away Record: Nebraska 0-1, ISU 0-3. Neutral Record: Nebraska 0-0, ISU 0-0. Conference Record: Nebraska 0-2, ISU 0-2. Series Record: Nebraska leads, 83-17-2.

GAME NOTES: The Nebraska Cornhuskers play just their second road game of the season this weekend as they stop into Jack Trice Stadium in Ames to do battle with the Iowa State Cyclone in Big 12 Conference action. The Huskers opened the campaign with five consecutive dates in Lincoln, finishing the lengthy homestand with three wins. Last week, the team was on the road for the very first time and faced off against Texas Tech, a meeting that resulted in a 37-31 overtime loss. The defeat was the third in a row for Nebraska, a squad that is now 0-2 in conference. As for the Cyclones, they too began the season rather strong with back-to-back victories, albeit against questionable competition in South Dakota State and Kent State. Since then the team has come up short in four straight outings, including a 38-10 decision against Baylor last weekend on the road in Waco. In terms of the all-time series between these two programs, Nebraska leads the Cyclones with a sizeable 83-17-2 advantage. However, ISU has taken two of the last three meetings from the Huskers in Jack Trice Stadium. Last season, Iowa State recorded 415 yards of total offense, the second-most for the program in the series, yet still bowed to Nebraska by a final of 35-17 in Lincoln.

Despite controlling the ball for barely three minutes in the fourth quarter on Saturday, that's when the Cyclones scored their only touchdown against Baylor on the road. Austen Arnaud tossed a nine-yard TD pass to Sedrick Johnson, but by that time the visitors were already trailing by five touchdowns. Arnaud finished 21-of-41 passing for 176 yards and an interception and also gained 13 of the team's 81 yards rushing in the onslaught. Arnaud has thrown six touchdowns and just two interceptions in the last three games for the Cyclones, yet the sophomore is still finding it difficult getting the team into the win column on a consistent basis. R.J. Sumrall appears to be his favorite target, having caught 27 passes for 402 yards and five touchdowns, all of which lead Iowa State after six games. However, the team lacks a powerful punch both passing the ball and running these days, averaging just 131.8 ypg on the ground and 204 ypg through the air, which means the squad's 335.8 ypg of total offense is second-to-last in the Big 12 Conference and 79th in the nation entering the week.

Less than a minute into the second period last Saturday, the Cyclones found themselves down by two touchdowns and they had surrendered 38 points just moments into the final frame, which means the defense for the squad was having a rough go of it. Even though ISU allowed Baylor to convert just 3-of-11 on third down, the Cyclones could not stop the Bears on fourth down (3-of-3) and permitted 435 yards of total offense. Fred Garrin made two of his nine stops behind the line of scrimmage, but it failed to make much of a difference. Garrin, who is third on the team in total tackles with 33 over six games, has just four TFLs overall, which is half of what team leader Kurtis Taylor has managed to muster. Although he has a mere 22 stops overall, Christopher Lyle has a team-best four sacks, and yet the team as a whole is just seventh in the conference with 1.83 sacks per game. The squad is tops in the league and tied for 11th in the nation with a plus-1.17 turnovers per game, but were it not for five interceptions in the opener against South Dakota State it would certainly be a different story.

A 17-yard touchdown pass from Joe Ganz to Todd Peterson with just 29 seconds remaining in regulation brought the Huskers all the way back into a tie with Texas Tech, but in the end the home team slipped by in overtime. Ganz finished the contest an amazing 36-of-44 for 349 yards and two touchdowns, but he was sacked two times and intercepted once in the losing cause. Once a punishing run team, Nebraska came away with a mere 114 yards on 35 rushing attempts, yet still managed to tally a pair of rushing scores nonetheless. Ranked sixth in the conference and 15th in the nation this week in total offense, Ganz is putting up better than 290 ypg and has thrown at least one touchdown pass in all but one contest this season. Almost as important as his TD tosses, Ganz has converted nearly 70 percent of his pass attempts, allowing the Nebraska offense to remain on the field. Starting running back Marlon Lucky has generated a team-best 298 yards on the ground and has four of the group's 10 rushing scores as well.

The Nebraska defense limited the Red Raiders to less than 20 minutes of possession last Saturday, but all that goes to show is how insignificant stats can sometimes be. The Huskers held Tech to just 48 offensive plays, yet the hosts still posted 421 yards for an average of close to nine yards per snap. An even more telling stat for Nebraska was that it allowed Texas Tech to score on all five red-zone opportunities. As good as Ganz and the passing offense has been this season, the pass defense for the Huskers seems to be giving back that advantage by allowing opponents to cash in on 254.2 ypg through the air, which at the moment is ninth in the Big 12 and 99th in the nation. Although it doesn't fall under the heading of defense, the team's punting game is also taking its share of hits, averaging a net of only 27.9 yards per attempt to rank last in the conference and 117th in the nation this week.

Being on the road is a rarity for the Huskers this season, but even though the team fell to Texas Tech last week the squad should still be able to put everything together against an average Iowa State program this week.