Loss to MU haunts Iowa State

ISU hopes to bounce back in bowl game

? The numbers signify what might have been for Iowa State football: Missouri 17, ISU 14.

Even now, a month after it happened and with the Cyclones getting ready for Tuesday’s game against Miami of Ohio in the Independence Bowl, the bitter taste from that overtime loss lingers.

Not only did it end what had been an uplifting regular season on a sour note, it kept the Cyclones from winning the Big 12 North outright and knocked them out of the conference championship game.

“A game like that is going to put a bad taste in your mouth and it’s still in my mouth,” center Luke Vander Sanden said. “And I don’t think it will completely ever be out because we had the opportunity of a lifetime if we could have taken care of business in that game.”

The Cyclones (6-5) had a chance to win that game twice at the end.

With 1:02 left in regulation and the score tied at 14, Bret Culbertson missed a 24-yard field goal attempt.

Then, after Missouri had taken the lead in overtime, Iowa State had a first down at the Tigers’ 3. Two plays later, however, Missouri’s A.J. Kincade intercepted Bret Meyer’s pass in the end zone, ending the game and plunging Jack Trice Stadium into stunned silence.

“It would be a sick feeling … to finish my football career with a loss like that,” senior linebacker Erik Anderson said. “So it’s great to get another shot to go out and play, to go out and compete.”

Still, Anderson said it took a long time to get over the loss, which resulted in Colorado playing Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game.

“I tried not to watch that game, but found myself flipping through it a couple of times just to see what was going on,” Anderson said.