NORMAN — Oklahoma won its fourth-straight Bedlam game on Saturday night, 48-47, but let’s face the facts.
If not for an improbable missed extra point by Matt Ammendola early in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma State wins.
Well, maybe.
See, when Taylor Cornelius found Tylan Wallace for a 24-yard touchdown strike on fourth down with 1:03 remaining in regulation, the Cowboys wouldn’t have had to choose between the tie and the win. The game would’ve already been tied, and a simple kick would’ve certainly done the trick.
That’s assuming Ammendola wasn’t destined to miss an extra point in the all-important Bedlam game. Given how Ammendola has done this year after OSU puts the ball in the end zone, there’s no reason to believe a shank was in his future.
The junior entered Gaylord-Family Memorial Stadium — which hosted its third-largest attendance in facility history with 87,635 fans — having converted 42 of 43 extra points this season. His only miss came in the season opener against Missouri State.
He’d even made all five of his attempts against OU leading up to the devastating blunder.
But maybe Cowboy fans feel differently about the kicker. Actually, if you search his name on Twitter, you’ll see they do in fact harbor certain feelings for Ammendola, and they aren’t positive.
Here are some notable social media reactions to the miss:
“Reasons why I’ll cry tonight: Matt Ammendola.”
“I could kick better than Matt Ammendola even if I had a broken foot.”
“Death, taxes and Matt Amendola ruining our chances of winning.”
“Usually it’s not fair to blame just one person for a loss, but it’s fair today. Fire Matt Ammendola!”
And here’s the kicker (no pun intended):
“Matt Ammendola should get defensive player of the game for OU. He defended the goalposts with more tenacity than I've ever seen.”
OSU fans are a passionate bunch, and their reactions seem to be stemming from pent-up anger against the kicker rather than just one mistake.
Hidden away in the play-by-play of the Bedlam game is a missed 41-yard field goal in the second quarter that would’ve trimmed the Cowboys’ deficit to 27-24.
For those keeping count, that’s four points left on the table by Ammendola. OSU lost by one.
Although he has been almost automatic on extra points, field goals have presented a challenge for Ammendola as of late.
In the past three weeks, Ammendola has missed five field goals, going 2-for-7. That’s not a good recipe for success.
Two of those misses came against Texas, but OSU managed to overcome them for a 38-35 win.
He missed two again last week at Baylor, but the Cowboys dropped a 35-31 decision to the Bears. Tack on those missing six points, and OSU wins that game, 37-35.
It’s like a butterfly effect — a theory in which a small change in a reality can result in major differences in the future of said reality.
In this case, if Ammendola did something different and somehow made those kicks, OSU would be sitting at 7-2 and probably ranked somewhere in the bottom half of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Instead, Ammendola and the Cowboys are at the mercy of the domino effect.
His misses have led to a chain of even more misses thanks to diminishing confidence, thus leading to some untimely OSU losses.
Ammendola’s inconsistencies were a topic of discussion for OSU coach Mike Gundy during the postgame press conference.
“He’s not been kicking good of late, that’s for sure,” Gundy said. “So we’ll have to address that issue (Sunday) and come up with the best solution. He missed a couple against Texas that were pretty moderate kicks for this level, and Baylor was a different deal. But here, he should’ve made those kicks, so we’ll have to address that issue.”
Regardless of what measures are taken in the coming week, it is worth mentioning that Ammendola’s shortcomings seem to coincide with the unfortunate theme of the Cowboys’ season.
Of all the teams in the Big 12, OSU seems to have some of the highest peaks and some of the lowest valleys.
The Cowboys earned a spot in the AP Top 25 poll at No. 24 after starting 2-0 with a pair of FCS thumpings, and they proved they belong with a 44-21 demolition of then-No. 17 Boise State.
That’s when things went a bit awry.
OSU fell to Texas Tech in blowout fashion only a week later — at home no less — before ho-humming its way to a 20-point win over Kansas on the road.
The Cowboys then dropped two straight before shocking the nation with a dramatic upset of then-No. 6 Texas on Homecoming night in Stillwater.
If not for that one outlier, OSU could easily be on a five-game losing streak right now.
Not even Ammendola can fix the mess that has been the Cowboys in 2018. Making a few more kicks here or there would’ve only masked OSU’s problems, not fixed them.
Putting misplaced blame on the kicker for what has transpired this season is foolish.
For now, though, “Human” by musician Rag'n'Bone Man will be Ammendola’s personal anthem.
“I'm just a man
I do what I can
Don't put the blame on me”