AMES, Iowa — Any realistic chance of a Texas trip to the Big 12 title game vanished the moment when Connor Assalley’s field goal split the uprights as time expired Saturday.

The 23-21 final was about more than just a frustrating loss to Iowa State writ large. It called into question the progress from the 2018 season, and just where Texas stands in Year 3 under Tom Herman.

Right now, the biggest positive this season for Texas (6-4, 4-3) is a win over a ranked Kansas State team that looks more like an aberration than a trend, given what happened at Jack Trice Stadium.

“It definitely hurts. It hurts real good,” safety Chris Brown said. “Like I told the team in the locker room, it’s easy to be a man when you’re winning, when you’re in position of power, but when you’re down and out, that defines who you are.”

Iowa State (6-4, 4-3), whose four losses have come by 11 points, beat Texas for just the third time in 17 meetings, joining 2015 and 2010. Nothing good occurred for Texas in either of those two seasons.

If not down and out, Texas is just another team with a whole lot of flaws that has dropped two straight road games and three out of its last five overall.

Herman’s voice wavered at the start of the press conference. Frankly, neither he nor his coaching staff or players expected this struggle, not after a Sugar Bowl appearance last season.

The Longhorns have two regular-season games remaining, against Baylor and Texas Tech, two in-state opponents that Herman pointed to afterward.

He also referenced the concept of front-runners, as he had after the loss to TCU.

“We’ll find out who on our team are front-runners and who are real grown men,” Herman said. “These underclassmen deserve our best shot the next two weeks.”

It will have to be better than it was in Ames. In a game in which the offense had seven three-and-outs on its first 11 possessions, Texas saved the worst for last.

Leading 21-20 at its own 15 with four minutes left — thanks to a fourth-down touchdown reception by Malcolm Epps — Texas ran twice for no gain and then had a screen pass thoroughly diagnosed by Iowa State defensive tackle Jamahl Johnson.

“The prudent thing to do is run time off the clock and make them use their time outs,” Herman said. “Did I think we’d make zero on our first two runs? No, I thought we’d make yards. We didn’t. Again.”

Texas hadn’t run the ball well the entire game en route to 54 total yards rushing and yet stayed on the ground for its most crucial possession.

“Really, really poor performance by our offense for the first few quarters,” Herman said. “We’ve got to really examine our game plan in the run game and our execution.”

Quarterback Sam Ehlinger (22 of 40, 273 yards, three TDs) paused for several seconds when asked about the offense being shut down for most of the first half outside of the final drive.

“It’s a great question,” Ehlinger said. “If I knew the answer, I would fix it and play that way every drive.”

Backup punter Chris Naggar seemed to bail out Texas with a 67-yard punt. But two Brock Purdy pass completions — he finished with 354 yards passing and two touchdowns — and a defensive pass interference call on Caden Sterns put Iowa State in position for a 42-yard field goal try by Assalley, who was just 1 for 3 this season outside the 40.

Assalley missed badly, but the entire left side of Texas’ defensive line jumped offside — Joseph Ossai was singled out — allowing Iowa State to kill the clock and have a much more manageable try from 36 yards.

“As backbreaking as you can get,” Herman said of the mistakes on the final drive.

He added that he thought Iowa State had moved first on the offside call and that the ball had been uncatchable on the pass interference call.

“We have to be more disciplined as a team,” Brown said. “Whether they jumped first or we jumped first, the refs called it on us. We have to be more disciplined on our part.”