Gary Patterson knew the statistic.

0-241.

Before Saturday’s come-from-behind victory at Kansas State, no team this season had rallied from 18 points down in the second half to win, much less on the road. Much less in Manhattan, Kan., against the milk-the-clock master Bill Snyder.

Yet Patterson and his Horned Frogs bucked the odds, extending their school-record 14-game win streak. The offense has scored 50 points or more in four straight games, and the team won its 10^th consecutive Big 12 matchup (including the last four conference road games by seven points or less). Halfway through an unexpectedly chaotic season, the Frogs stand undefeated.

“We’re 6-0. We’ve already played a lot of football already in this season,” Patterson said on Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “We’ve found ways to win. I’ve got plenty of things to line up that we can get better at. But right now, I should appreciate that they’ve played their tails off.”

The Frogs have played an NCAA-high 29 redshirt and true freshmen, who make up almost half of the team’s travel roster.

“That’s a bunch. Every day is 50 first dates at this point,” Patterson admitted. “Everybody’s made mistakes, but you have to give our kids credit. They’ve made stops when they’ve needed to.”

His appreciation lasted about 60 seconds.

“There’s a lot of compliments,” the coach said, concluding a meandering thought about the difficulty of road games in Lubbock and Manhattan and how other programs have fared in those hostile environments. “But I don’t have time for compliments. We’ve got to get ready for the Cyclones.”

Iowa State enters Saturday’s matchup having rushed for 315 yards last week against Texas Tech, including 245 from freshman running back Mike Warren, who has topped 100 yards on the ground in three straight games. Patterson credited an athletic Cyclone offensive line that frequently pulls its guards and tackles to open running lanes.

The Cyclone rushing attack will stress the Horned Frogs, who yielded 228 rushing yards to Kansas State.

“Defensively, we have to play faster,” Patterson said. “If we play defense like we did in the second half [against Kansas State], then you’re going to have a lot more success. We kind of waited around in the Texas Tech and Kansas State games. We can’t do that. We’ve got to start faster this week.”

Playing at night in Iowa State’s enlarged Jack Trice Stadium, which has been the site of big upsets in the Big 12 in years past, increases the level of difficulty. Patterson believes his team could be in for another high-scoring barnburner. Saturday’s contest will be the third conference road trip in four games, which Patterson said was TCU’s most crucial stretch of the year.

But a win keeps the Frogs undefeated headed into a much-anticipated bye week.

“We’ve got to be one point better than Iowa State, then we get 12 days off, catch our breath and see how the last five games fall,” Patterson said.