With 53 seconds left in Ames, Wyatt Young caught a 7-yard touchdown pass that put Oklahoma State up 49-48 over Iowa State. A flag came out right after the score, and within a minute, the Cowboys had gone from the verge of a comeback win to a 51-49 loss on a walk-off field goal. Young now knows how much that penalty cost his team, and he has said so publicly.

“I apologize to all Cowboy football supporters, my teammates, and coaches for the lack of discipline and selfishness I displayed today,” Young wrote on X. “Football is a team sport and one play, like the one I made, can change the outcome of the whole game and I’m sorry for that.”

“The lack of maturity I showed is inexcusable and should have never been displayed on the field,” Young continued. “I deeply regret representing the loyal and true motto Oklahoma State stands by the way I did. I take full accountability for what happened; our coaches do not teach us or allow us to act the way I did.”

The game itself was a wild one. Iowa State, playing at home on October 31, beat the No. 24 Cowboys when kicker Kyle Konrardy hit a 34-yard field goal as time expired. The two teams combined for 100 points, 13 touchdowns and 1,114 yards of total offense. Oklahoma State is now 5-3, while Iowa State moved to 4-4.

When Young caught the 7-yard touchdown, it looked like the Cowboys had pulled off a big comeback after trailing 45-35 early in the fourth quarter. Then the flag came out because Young had run toward the Iowa State fans in the stands, instead of joining his teammates to celebrate, and officials penalized him for unsportsmanlike conduct. 

Since the flag came after the score, the 15 yards were enforced on the kickoff, so Oklahoma State had to kick from its own 20-yard line. Iowa State returned that kick to its 37-yard line.

The Cyclones needed very little after that. Jaylen Raynor opened the final drive with a 33-yard pass to Jamal Polite, and Aiden Flora then ripped off three straight runs to move the ball into range for Konrardy. The kicker did the rest.

Head coach Eric Morris did not hold back when he talked about the penalty afterward in the postgame presser. 

“To put the nail in the coffin at the end on Halloween night, we have the most selfish penalty ever after we score a touchdown and go up and put our defense in a bad position right there. That falls on me as the head coach, and I’ll get that fixed,” Morris said.

Morris was not totally sure what the officials saw, though. 

“They said he went to the stands, maybe, is the only thing. That’s usually what they flag. I’ll have to go back and really watch it,” he said. He also made it clear that Young broke a team rule. “He didn’t celebrate with his teammates, and that’s our rule, and there will be punishments because of it.”

Mestemaker, who threw for 323 yards and five touchdowns, stood up for his teammate while admitting the mistake hurt. 

“It’s just hard because (Young) plays his best when he’s walking that line, and obviously we can’t have that happen, and he knows it,” said Mestemaker in the postgame presser. “He’s beating himself up the most out of anyone. I just have to be there for him. It sucks. We have to learn from it and move on.”

Young was strong on the night, finishing with seven catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns. Caleb Hawkins added 194 rushing yards for the Cowboys. Even so, Morris pointed out that the penalty was not the only problem on that last sequence. 

“We left too much time, and you combine that with the penalty and putting them in great field position. Then we give up an explosive pass on the very first play,” Morris said. 

For Iowa State, the win meant a lot, as it was the first ranked victory for first-year head coach Jimmy Rogers, and it ended a two-game skid in which the Cyclones scored only 13 points. Raynor threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns and added a rushing score; Flora ran for 221 yards and two touchdowns, and Polite had 171 receiving yards. 

Iowa State finished with 581 total yards, its most in a game since September 2019.

“It was unbelievable for our guys. They needed this one in the worst way,” Rogers said in the postgame presser. He also praised his kicker, saying, “Konrardy’s the best kicker in the country. There’s no doubt about it.” 

Rogers also acknowledged the points his defense gave up, noting, “We’ll get criticized for how much they scored. But that team is really good. They’ve done that to everybody.”

The loss stings for Oklahoma State, which has now dropped two of its last three games by a combined five points. The Cowboys visit Kansas State next Saturday, with a November 14 home game against Texas Tech also looming as a potentially defining Big 12 matchup.