The easiest thing to do is blame the kicker.

After all, Tony Yelk did go 0-4 Saturday against Texas A&M last week – with one field goal bouncing off the left upright and another sailing wide of the right one.

It’s nearly as easy to blame the offensive line.

Texas A&M’s Rocky Bernard blocked Yelk’s 26-yard first quarter field goal. And Yelk’s 47-yard first-half ending attempt was blocked by Marcus Jasmin.

But, if you’re going to blame people for last week’s 24-21 loss, the Cyclones say, why stop at special teams?

Why not blame the defense for allowing Aggie running back Derek Farmer to score a 65-yard touchdown with 5:08 left in the game?

Why not blame quarterback Seneca Wallace, who had a marvelous game, throwing for 348 yards and two touchdowns, but tossing a second-quarter interception that, had the drive not stalled, would have won or possibly tied the game?

Why not blame the guys behind Wallace?

Iowa State’s rushing attack didn’t attack much, ending the game with 97 yards.

“It’s not one person that screwed up, it’s a whole team effort,” quarterback Seneca Wallace says. “We all make mistakes. No one’s perfect.”

“You can’t just blame it on the kicker. You can’t blame everything on coaching,” ISU offensive lineman Marcel Howard says.

“It’s heartbreaking, because all along the game we’re thinking `we’re going to beat these guys. We’re going to beat them,” Howard says.

And then they didn’t.

“We’re upset,” Wallace says. “Of course we’re going to be upset when the game is that close. It was there for us to be taken, and you know, we didn’t make the plays at the time.”

“If he just makes 2-for-4 we win the game,” linebacker Justin Eilers says.

That’s true. Iowa State ran up 445 yards to Texas A&M’s 322. The Cyclones had more first downs (12) and more passes completed (30) than the Aggies attempted (21).

Eilers exhales. “That was a big one. But we gotta bounce back against K-State.”

Work began Monday.

Over by the goal post, attention was paid to the fundamentals of the kicking game.

Elsewhere, guys tried to focus only on the present.

“Things happen, you know what I mean, you got to let that go,” linebacker Matt Word says responding to Farmer’s 65-yard touchdown.

“We had some mistakes in that game that cost us,” Word continues. “But we can’t dwell on that.”

“You just gotta make sure you don’t make the same mistakes next week,” Wallace says.

“The thing that happened down in Nebraska made us even stronger,” Wallace says. “Maybe it happened for a reason, for us to bounce back against Kansas State and the rest of the games.”