On the topic of 1st half performance vs 2nd half performance...
1st half scoring (for season):
Opponent: 121 ISU: 159
2nd half:
Opponent: 90 ISU: 146
I actually didn't see much difference between 1st and second half performances. 21 points from that 31 point opponent scoring difference came from the Texas Tech game. Quite an outlier there. And there was a 31 point difference between first and second half in the Kansas game for ISU's scoring (38 in 1st, 7 in 2nd).
There was only 1 game where both scoring O and scoring D got worse in the second half (against WVU). There were 4 games where both scoring O and scoring D improved from 1st to 2nd half. They went 2-2 in those games (Texas, oSu - Tech, Baylor).
4-0 when taking a lead into halftime. 2-4 when not (Texas and oSu were the wins). Of course, special teams play makes the analysis a bit tricky to quickly assess the differences between strictly offense and defense. I think the takeaway is still if ISU is down at the half, all sides of the ball have to improve to win. One facet alone cant do it.