COLUMBIA, Mo. – ISU running back Greg Coleman thinks a curse may be hanging over his football team.

It’s a costly curse.

The Cyclones turned the ball over three times in Saturday’s 27-24 defeat against Missouri, making it six times in the past two games they have given up the football.

“It just seems like a curse,” Coleman said. “We just look over at each other and say ‘Wow, did that really just happen?'”

The Cyclones committed turnovers on both their second and third possessions of the game.

Missouri safety William Moore intercepted a Bret Meyer pass and returned it 62 yards for the Tiger touchdown, giving Missouri the early 7-0 lead.

Two plays and 44 seconds later, it was Missouri defensive lineman Xzavie Jackson recovered and returned a Jason Harris fumble 14 yards for a touchdown, and Missouri led 14-0 before their offense had even picked up a first down.

“Obviously we dug ourselves a huge hole with turnovers for touchdowns,” said ISU coach Dan McCarney. “It’s bad enough you turn it over, but then you give them 14 points. It was about as poor a start offensively as you could have.”

The Cyclones rallied in the second quarter and first got on the scoreboard with a Ryan Kock 1-yard touchdown run. A 42-yard Bret Culbertson field goal capped an impressive 18-play, 55-yard drive that took well over nine minutes off the clock just before halftime.

Turnovers reared their ugly head again in the third quarter, this time for Missouri’s offense. The Tigers had driven all the way to the ISU 36-yard line when Missouri quarterback Brad Smith fumbled the football at the 32-yard line and Nick Leaders recovered for Iowa State.

Iowa State took the opportunity and looked to capitalize on the Tiger mistake putting together an impressive drive that put the Cyclones at the 6-yard line. But once again, the Cyclones’ curse appeared.

ISU fullback Ryan Kock caught a pass to the 2-yard line where he was hit and fumbled. Missouri recovered in the endzone for a touchback.

“I really cost our football team and it’s inexcusable,” Kock said of the fumble. “It shouldn’t happen. I caught the ball out away from my body and I was trying to bring it in and got hit. It shouldn’t happen.”

The fumble was eerily reminiscent of last week when Coleman fumbled inside the 1-yard line against Baylor which resulted in a dramatic momentum swing that helped the Bears to victory.

“Turning it over on the 1-yard last week, turning it over on the 3-yard line today, we sure have had our chances,” McCarney said.

The ISU defense, however, was not ready to call it quits just yet. Only three plays later, as time expired in the third quarter, ISU safety Nik Moser intercepted a pass from Smith and returned it 21 yards setting up the Cyclones just 10 yards from paydirt.

It took Iowa State just three plays to put it in the endzone with a Kock 1-yard touchdown run to give Iowa State their first lead of the day at 17-14.

The Moser interception appeared to be the spark the Cyclones had been looking for, as the defense came up with its third turnover of the day when Brent Curvey recovered a Brad Ekwerekwu fumble at the Missouri 36-yard line.

It was back to Kock again as he plunged in from the 1-yard line for his third score of the day, giving Iowa State a 24-14 lead with nine minutes to play.

From there on, however, it was a question of what could have been for Iowa State. A Missouri fumble that was recovered by Iowa State and taken for a touchdown was overturned, and on Missouri’s final drive in regulation, two near interceptions could have sealed the game for the Cyclones.

“I thought we rallied back; we got turnovers on defense; we made plays; the offense executed,” McCarney said. “We ran the ball well, and at the end, we came up a play short.

“You’ve got to credit Gary Pinkel and his team. They showed a lot of heart and hung in there and won it in the overtime.”