In the first week of the college football season, the Huskies found out (the hard way) that you can’t get anywhere if you shoot yourself in the foot.

In the Huskies 54-10 loss to Iowa State on Thursday night, they managed to rack up 14 penalties, which cost them 92 yards—92 crucial yards that could’ve scored much needed touchdowns, and maybe prevented the Cyclones from testing the attention span of the scoreboard operator.

Although the stat sheet read 92 yards, in reality the Huskies lost much more. In the third quarter, LeShon Johnson broke away for one of his infamous 70 plus yard runs, but had to return even deeper in Huskie territory due to a holding call.

Maybe there was some anxiety on the line or maybe it was just opening day jitters.

Whatever it was that caused the Huskies to draw 14 penalties will hopefully be cleared up before Saturday when a called back touchdown could determine the game.

Although some people may think it takes a lot of practice to draw the yellow flag, the Huskies aren’t too familiar with the penalty scene.

In 1992, the Huskies managed to commit only 57 penalties for 423 yards. At the rate they are going now, they could surpass this after they face Arkansas State in the third week of the season. Head coach Charlie Sadler will make sure this doesn’t happen.

“What we have to do is go out as team and have great concentration in all of our executions, because these penalties are execution errors,” Sadler said.

Sadler also said that although having 14 penalties in one game was a great negative, the play of the offense was a positive.

Well, if it was penalties that prevented them from scoring points, what was it that allowed Iowa State to score 54 points?

The Cyclones scored five of their seven touchdowns on crucial Huskie mistakes. Blown coverages allowed Cyclone receivers to score on passes of 46, 53, and 77 yards. Not paying attention to the option allowed Cyclone quarterback Bob Utter to score on an amazing 50-yard run. And finally, a LeShon Johnson fumble turned into a 41-yard touchdown return for Cyclone safety, Kevin Fulton.

If the Huskies can prevent costly execution errors such as these, they could have a good showing Saturday at Indiana, and more importantly in the overall season standings.