The Buckner effect
By Editorial Board November 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm 
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There is always a scapegoat. Fans search for an individual to blame for an unexpected loss, and Saturday night’s scapegoat was freshman kicker Alex Garoutte.
He missed three field goals in ASU’s one point loss to UCLA, one of which came as time expired.
He is an easy target. The kicker doesn’t see much playing time, but is thrown into the most pressure-filled situations. Four quarters of hard-fought football can come down to a single “perceived” chip shot.
It has happened many times before. An individual is singled out to justify why an entire team has failed.
Bill Buckner, Steve Bartman and even Boise State’s Kyle Brotzman all suffered that fate. They represent the moment of their team’s demise. Buckner, who let the ball go between his legs in the 1986 World Series, felt the wrath of Red Sox nation for years.
Bartman, a Chicago Cubs fan, reached to catch a foul ball catch and disrupted a possible catch by an outfielder and hurt the Cubs chance to win a National League championship. Brotzman, a kicker for Boise State, missed two chances at a field goal that would have sealed the team’s perfect season.
Garoutte can relate most to Brotzman, who was the target of threats and harassing phone calls shortly after the game was finished. The supporters responded, and his coach and teammates tried to share the blame, but the mob mentality dominates with sports frustration.
Garoutte made mistakes against UCLA, there is no debating that, but so did many other Sun Devils. The offense didn’t capitalize when it recovered a fumble in UCLA territory, then the defense gave up a first down on a third-and-29.
Erickson could have used the time-outs more efficiently and given the team time for a couple more plays.
The game should have never come down to a field goal. UCLA showed up to play and the Devils didn’t. It is unfair to put the blame the loss squarely on Garoutte’s shoulders.
The win puts the Bruins in control of their own destiny for the Pac-12 South championship. They are just three victories away from clinching it.
ASU played as if they were entitled to a win, and it put the outcome of the game on the young kicker’s shoulders.
But this is what we have come to expect from ASU football. Finally the team is poised to make a big win, but the Sun Devils rarely come through in the clutch. This is part of being an ASU fan.
This loss needs to serve as a wake-up call to Garoutte and company. The fate of the Sun Devil post-season was in their hands Saturday night. Now, UCLA controls it.
Three wins and the Pac-12 South is UCLA’s, all because ASU added one more “almost” story to the list.
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Tags: Alex Garoutte ASU football Bill Buckner Boise State Dennis Erickson Kyle Brotzman Steve Bartman UCLA football
Agreed…to an extent. Buckner and Bartman are sort of unfair comparisons as what they did was one event which was either a culmination of or an excuse for the rest of the collapse that occured. You are right that this loss was not completely Alex Garoutte’s fault. The 3 and outs following the two forced fumbles were terrible and looked to be the result of poor playcalling combined with even worse execution. The decision not to go for 2 after the last ASU touchdown made absolutely no sense and a successful conversion would have changed the complexion of the game. Ultimately, it would be wrong to pin this loss on the final missed FG of the game.
And this would all be well and good if that was the only mistake Garoutte had on the night. Unfortunately it was not, which makes the Buckner comparison all the more misleading. The last attempt was just the third in an 0/3 field goal night for Garoutte. The 40+ yard misses are tough no doubt, but he has the leg (season long: 49 yards) and for a ranked Division 1 team, “It’s a hard kick” is a hollow excuse. But even that is more than can be said for the 36 yard miss off the late 4th quarter fumble. With the ball on the 20, that’s an extremely makeable kick that instead gave the Rose Bowl and UCLA team a huge momentum boost.
In a game as tight as this was, field positioning is key. On kickoffs, Garoutte did not force a single touchback and even kicked one out of bounds. Even a defense as good as ours is supposed to be could use all the help it can get.
Part of the reason why I wanted to leave this comment was because I knew this kind of piece was coming. I knew that it had to be said that this was a team loss, which of course, it was. But on a night where we gained 10 more first downs, fewer penalty yards, and two key 4th quarter fumbles, I don’t see anything wrong with pointing out to the failures of the kicking game. Yes, it might be true that this should not have been a one point game decided in the final seconds. But this also doesn’t mean that we can ignore the 9 points our kicker left on the board.
This is our most talented team in several years, having hung around the lower end of the BCS rankings and with hopes of a Pac-12 title. Yet of all things our kicker leaves much to be desired (currently 60% on field goals, good for 79th in the nation). This is the second game (along with Illinois) where a missed, makeable field goal has cost us both the game and our current ranking. If our offense or defense was this unreliable, we’d no doubt be clamoring for a change. Why should it be any different for our kicking game?