Tough goal-line call sends Tigers’ season spiraling with their fourth loss in past five games

AMES, Iowa — Quarterback Chase Daniel was face down on the turf, barely moving.

It was third-and-goal on the 7. With less than a minute left Saturday against Iowa State, and with Missouri down 21-16, Daniel decided to take it himself. A hard hit had sent him somersaulting through the air. The medical crew came out to make sure he wasn’t injured.

Daniel landed on the half-yard line, and after the game said he couldn’t feel his legs at the end of the play.

Missouri challenged the call, saying Daniel crossed the goal line while flipping through air. The challenge failed, but it allowed the Tigers to put Daniel back in for one last try. Disheveled, he hobbled back for fourth-and-goal on the half-yard line.

The crowd that did show up for Iowa State coach Dan McCarney’s final game rose to its feet, while the Missouri faithful huddled together in the southwest corner of Jack Trice Stadium.

Missouri spread the field and snapped the ball from the shotgun. Daniel sprinted right as a monstrous red defensive lineman barreled toward him, trying to cut him off.

Daniel stretched his frame out, and his bruised and taped hands broke the goal line with the ball.

The pocket of black and gold rejoiced as Iowa State fans gripped their heads and stared on with disbelief as Missouri had seemingly taken another game away from them to end their season. The right linesman had signaled a touchdown, capping off the Missouri drive that started with a missed field goal by Iowa State kicker Bret Culberson.

But there was a late flag that came in behind the line — a holding penalty on guard Monte Wyrick.

Players on the Missouri sideline that had been rejoicing only seconds earlier acted with shock and disbelief at the call. Iowa State fans, realizing what had just happened, almost instantaneously became raucous again, waving around whatever articles of red and gold that they could find.

By now, the anxiety for both sides had reached new levels. The Tigers, barring a penalty, would have one more shot from its 10-yard line.

Missouri again spread the field and lined up in the shotgun. The call was for a fake screen, with the pass going to Coffman in the end zone

Daniel snapped the ball, but the play was broken from the start. There was too much pressure on both sides, and Daniel dropped back to avoid the rush.

He evaded one defender, spinning through his outstretched arms. Daniel turned upfield, heading back toward the end zone, desperately trying to find an open receiver.

Two more defenders closed in on him, and Daniel was swallowed up. Going down, he fumbled forward, trying to just make something happen. But the game was over.

Fans poured onto the field, surrounding the team and McCarney, the coach with the most wins in school history.

The players carried McCarney off the field, while Missouri coach Gary Pinkel got ready to address the media.

Pulling off his black windbreaker, Pinkel sunk into a discolored red vinyl chair. He had bags under his eyes, and the lines on his weathered face seemed much more pronounced than they had earlier in the week.

In a voice barely loud enough to hear, he clearly voiced his disappointment with what happened at the end of the game.

“In 30 years of coaching, I’ve never seen a holding call like that that close to the goal,” Pinkel said. “I’m going to defend my players. I’ve never seen anything like that inside the 2-or-3-yard line.

“To have a referee throw the late flag... I’ve gotta fight and defend my players.”

Tight end Martin Rucker said the game was taken out of the players’ hands. Other than Rucker, players wouldn’t comment on the questionable penalty, but it was obvious that the loss hit the team hard.

Daniel was crying on his way into the locker room, and defensive tackle Lorenzo Williams tried to console him.

“It just made me feel like I didn’t do enough.” Williams said. “I didn’t know what to say. He was disappointed, just like the rest of us.”

Safety David Overstreet said he was tearing things up in the locker room because he was so angry.

“Man, how do you think we would feel?” Overstreet asked. “We thought we had a touchdown to win the game.

“It’s not easy to bounce back at all, especially for me.”

It was a game that Missouri, now 7-4 (3-4 Big 12 Conference), knew should have been a victory. It was the Cyclones’ (4-8, 1-7 Big 12) first conference win in a season where they struggled to do anything right.

“I was just stunned. I’m in awe of what had just happened,” Daniel said. “No offense to them, but it never should have happened.”

Pinkel said it best at the end of his post-game conference. Looking off to the side, fighting to find words to fit what had just happened to him and his team, he said, “It was just absolutely stunning.”

Running his hands through his thinning brown hair, he pulled himself up from the faded seat. Looking as if he could cry, he strode from the makeshift conference area back toward the locker room.

It was the look of a man who had lost more than just a game.