It seemed only fitting. The new kicker on the team, who didn’t get any recognition before making the biggest kick in his career, won an overtime game against a school rival.

The only problem for ISU fans is that this is the story of Missouri kicker Adam Crossett.

Missed opportunities were the name of the game for the ISU football team on a cold and windy game against Missouri on Saturday.

Most people will try to put the loss on freshman kicker Bret Culbertson, but there are many other areas to place the blame.

The biggest and most glaring is the offensive play-calling.

Although most will look at the missed field goal, look only one play earlier to see where things went wrong.

Although the run game was stuffed the previous two plays, the Cyclones again decided to run it up the gut, trying to kill time and get the first down on the third down and a manageable yardage situation.

Of course, the run was stopped again, and in goes a walk-on freshman kicker, kicking from the right hash mark with thoughts of the Big 12 championship game on his mind.

Another poorly handled situation was the third-down play in overtime, which eventually ended Iowa State’s chance.

While it seems a logical choice to throw a jump ball to a receiver, one would think the receiver would be Todd Blythe, no matter the circumstances.

Throughout the season, Blythe has continually proved that he can outjump almost any defensive back in the league, and it would be assumed that he could do the same in this situation.

There were also a couple of fourth-down conversion attempts early in the game which makes one wonder about the play-calling.

When Iowa State goes to its bowl game, one thing it will certainly need to work on is line play.

The offensive line couldn’t block Missouri’s front four throughout the game.

A lot of people booed when Austin Flynn came in for hurt quarterback Bret Meyer, but Joe Montana probably couldn’t have completed a pass in the pocket the offensive line was creating.

Both offensive tackles were allowing pressure all game long. Any kind of passing pocket Meyer may have had quickly collapsed, forcing him to scramble.

The defensive line didn’t do much better.

Tyson Smith seemed to be the only one to consistently break through Missouri’s offensive line, and if all Iowa State can do is get a one-man rush in any bowl game it may play, it will be a long day.

When a defensive lineman would break through, Brad Smith would make one little juke move and make him look foolish.

There are some positives to take from the game.

The punt team did a great job, pinning the Missouri offense in its own 10-yard line several times.

In the end, ISU looked like a team that was still worn out from the Kansas State game the week before.

The heart was there, but the mind and legs didn’t seem to be. There were dropped passes at the beginning, and that mentality seemed to stick through much of the game.

This team simply did not play up to its potential in the heartbreaking overtime loss — a loss pertaining not only to one game, but also involving a Big 12 Championship game and 90-plus years of history of mediocrity for the Cyclones.