Kicking isn’t easy, especially at the college level where stellar kickers are a rare breed.
The amount of scorn poor kickers can receive when they are off makes them often times into a man on an island. Kyle Bambard knows this pressures all too well, as he had a chance to put the game away for North Carolina State against Clemson.
Though the kick that will get a lot of play in the media will be the 33-yard game-winner he missed, it wasn’t his only miss of the day, as he went one-for-four on the day. N.C. State had plenty of chances to put this game away, it just never materialized, and N.C. State lost an overtime heartbreaker 24-17.
Here is video of the end of game miss that sent the game to overtime with the game tied at 17.
Bambard has never been an especially accurate kicker as he hits just over 50% of his career field goals. Nonetheless, your heart has to go out to someone that fails on such a big stage.
Most of the time, these type of kicks lead to an immediate loss, N.C. State still had a chance to win this game, as the teams went into overtime. Deshaun Watson took Clemson down the field in the first series of overtime throwing for a touchdown. The way N.C. State played it looked like they might be able to keep up. On the very first play of their series, they took a shot at a quick touchdown. The results were less than pleasing.
Brutal. The Wolfpack deserved a better fate in this game, the football gods were unfortunately not on their side.
