Quarterback Phillip Bates was uncharacteristically somber Sunday evening.

A day after the 17-5 loss to Iowa, the normally happy-go-lucky true sophomore was haunted by the touchdown that got away.

On third-and-5 from the Iowa 8-yard line, Bates rolled left and scanned the endzone for an open receiver. The sideline was left open, but the fleet-footed 18-year-old hesitated to run.

He sprinted toward the corner of the endzone but stepped out of bounds 1-yard short of the first down before lunging for the pylon.

“I didn’t get the job done. I hesitated, and I didn’t make a play when my team needed me to make a play, and that’s a big thing for me,” Bates said, who didn’t re-enter the game after the third-quarter play. “I go off of making plays, and that’s what I want to do, and [Saturday] it was a big time for me to step up and make a play, and I didn’t do it.”

The loss was hard to swallow for the whole ISU football team, but Saturday’s five-point output left more reason for regret by the offense.

The Cyclones (2-1 overall) scored three points off of six trips inside the Hawkeyes’ 30-yard line.

Two bad snaps on field goals fueled a disastrous 1-for-4 performance by true freshman kicker Grant Mahoney, while mis-throws and missed catches were scattered throughout the passing game.

Starting quarterback Austen Arnaud played in seven of eight second-half possessions, completing 15 of 26 passes for 172 yards and two interceptions.

Bates was 3 of 6 for 28 yards and an interception in his first game against a BCS-opponent. Coach Gene Chizik said Arnaud’s playing time did not indicate that he “pulled away in the quarterback derby.”

“We were struggling, running the football. We were going to have to use a little more drop-back pass, which Austen obviously has done more of that, sensibly because he’s been in the meetings and the offense,” Chizik said. “That’s just one of the things he’s probably a little bit ahead of Phillip at right now is the true drop-back pass.”

Chizik said the quarterbacks will continue to be rotated based on the “flow” of the game.

“Our quarterbacks know this, but when you go into it as a game-by-game situation, you play it as the game unfolds,” Chizik said. “But that being said, there is an opportunity for it to flip, where one plays 20 plays and the other plays 45, and it could be Phillip next week.”

Chizik said he saw good things in each quarterback Saturday, but the progress of both sophomores needs to “move ahead in a hurry.”

Arnaud said it was a frustrating experience watching Saturday’s game tape.

“I had a couple mistakes myself. They blitzed one time, and I had Darius [Darks] standing open in the endzone, and I threw the other way to Marquis [Hamilton], which I completed on the 1-yard line, but we still didn’t score on that drive,” Arnaud said. “So definitely right there, I take that on myself, just knowing what to do when the blitz comes.”

This Saturday, Iowa State plays what Chizik calls an aggressive UNLV defense. Last Saturday, the Rebels blocked a field goal in overtime to secure a 23-20 win over then-15th ranked Arizona State.

Bates turns 19 years old on the day of this week’s game, and doesn’t think he’ll have time for cake and presents.

“I’m just going to sit in the hotel and sit around and probably talk to my parents before the game, and that’s pretty much it,” he said.