Sophomore kicker Mike McKnight missed a pair of seemingly crucial kicks in the Cyclones’ 16-12 loss at the hands of Colorado on Saturday.

A second quarter point after touchdown bounced off the left upright to cost Iowa State one point and a late fourth quarter field goal sailed wide left to cost the team another three.

Four squandered points and a four-point margin of victory. Seems like a pretty clean-cut case of a kicker costing his team the big game. Right?

Not exactly.

For starters, McKnight didn’t miss the second quarter PAT. He drilled it straight through the uprights. However, an inexcusable holding penalty forced him to reset and kick again. This was the kick that failed.

In addition, trailing 12-10, the Buffaloes were forced to go for a two-point conversion after their next touchdown – a two-point conversion that also failed. Had McKnight made the kick, Colorado would have nailed a simple PAT, and the ultimate lead would have still been four points.

Finally, for the Cyclone coaches to even allow McKnight on the field late in the fourth quarter was nothing short of ridiculous. Trailing by four points with one timeout and less than 4:30 left to play, the decision to kick a meaningless field goal is not an easy one to defend.

Had McKnight connected on the kick, the ISU defenders would have still been forced to reclaim the ball almost immediately for another long field goal attempt. The fact that the defense came up short makes McKnight’s miss irrelevant.

Even if the Cyclones had forced a Colorado three-and-out, they’d still have under two minutes to move their clock-chewing, ground-based offense into field goal range.

One Colorado first down would have made the task next to impossible, and another, as ISU fans saw quite clearly, would end the game.

While the ISU defense had forced a couple of three-and-outs during the game, the Colorado offense and Cortlen Johnson, in particular, had exploited them on every other possession.

For the Cyclones to win based on the strategy they employed, the defense would need to hold Colorado without a first down, the offense would need to drive the length of the field in under two minutes, and McKnight would need to hit two deep field goals.

Did Dan McCarney really think this was easier than picking up two-and-a-half yards on fourth down?

What makes the decision even worse was the call leading up to it. Facing a third-and-eight, the Cyclones ran the ever-present halfback draw which picked up five yards.

While this sets up a very convertable fourth down, the coaches couldn’t have actually expected eight yards and a first down. If they knew in advance they were going to kick on fourth down, why in the name of all that’s holy would they run a draw?

Mike McKnight did not make the plays that a starting kicker on a division IA football team needs to make. However, his miscues pale in comparison to the errors of the Cyclone staff.

As any football expert will tell you, mistakes by a kicker are inexcusable.

Unfortunately, so are mistakes by a coach.

---

Ron DeMarse is a senior in liberal studies from Muscatine