Overall Assessment: Every realistic Kansas State football fan knew the Wildcats’ undefeated run was going to come to an end at some point. Maybe the way Oklahoma ended that run, by exposing several of K-State’s weaknesses in a 58-17 blowout Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, was surprising. But the simple fact that the Wildcats are trying to move on from their first loss today is not.
The question now is: How will they handle it?
The Sooners posed significant matchup problems for the Wildcats. In order to beat Oklahoma, as Texas Tech shockingly did in Norman last week, you have to pressure Landry Jones and throw the ball for big yardage. K-State could do neither, and had to step out of its comfort zone. That led to zero success in the second half. Oklahoma played the game at its terms, and made winning look easy.
Difficult opponents remain on K-State’s schedule, but none play exactly the same style. If the Wildcats can put Saturday’s loss behind them, they can still finish the season strong and make it to a prestigious bowl game. In the past two seasons, they have rebounded well from brutal losses. A humiliating 66-14 loss at Texas Tech was followed with a 62-14 win over Texas A&M and a 48-13 loss to Nebraska was followed by a 59-7 win over Kansas.
But this is the first time this team has seen its own blood. Bill Snyder and players say Saturday’s loss was unacceptable, and that they will turn things around quickly.
“I would say that we have a tough minded group of young guys that understand and deal with success and with failure,” Snyder said. “I would hope that the failure would not come from not caring and not trying to correct your mistakes, like when we have not failed. Our guys seem to care, tend to care. They will begin to make an effort and try and get all of their mistakes corrected.”
We’ll have to wait a week to find out how much they correct. Here’s a look at all that and more in this week’s Sunday Rewind:
Player Evaluations
Five that were good:
1. Nigel Malone. His play was one of the few positives K-State could point to on Saturday. The junior cornerback grabbed two interceptions in the first half, and helped the Wildcats stay in the game early on. He now has six interceptions on the year, and is likely on his way to an All-Conference nomination.
Not that he could think about any of that Saturday evening.
“Anytime they go for as many yards as they did, there’s never a bright spot in the game,” Malone said. “… I was just trying to make plays and keep momentum on our side. It did for the first half, but I can’t really say much for the two interceptions in the second half.”
2. Raphael Guidry. The defensive tackle blocked yet another kick, this time an extra point attempt, against Oklahoma. That is his specialty. He has three blocks on the year.
3. David Garrett. Nobody took this loss harder than Garrett. He was part of a secondary that allowed Jones to set a school record with 505 passing yards and five touchdowns. So, obviously, he was displeased in his play. But he was still one of the Wildcats’ better defenders. He made seven tackles, and had a great tackle for loss in the first half.
4. Tyler Lockett. Though he didn’t return a kick for a touchdown against Oklahoma, he did often give K-State tremendous field position. Impressive considering he didn’t even need to touch the ball to do it. The Sooners were afraid to kick to him. On their first kickoff of the game, they booted the ball out of bounds and let K-State start at the 40. On the next, they tried a pooch kick, which K-State returned to Oklahoma’s 39. Lockett also made three catches for 24 yards and carried the ball three times for 15 yards.
5. Ryan Doerr. K-State’s punter often had to punt into the wind, and he did a solid job doing so. He booted seven punts for 294 yards, including a long of 56 yards. He also looked good making an open-field tackle as the last line of defense on a punt return.
Five that were bad:
1. Collin Klein. The junior quarterback is good at many things, but making tough passes in the face of a pass rush is not his forte. On Saturday, he did everything he could early to play to his strengths. He gained 146 rushing yards (before factoring in losses), had a fabulous 42-yard touchdown run and scored two touchdowns. But when Oklahoma began to pull away, and K-State had to throw to get back in the game, he was unable to move the offense. On the day, he completed 8 of 16 passes for 58 yards.
2. Offensive line. Klein can’t take all the blame for K-State’s passing woes. The offensive line struggled mightily, too. This is a bunch that looked like it was over-achieving for most of the season, but it was manhandled on Saturday. Oklahoma sacked Klein seven times, and had great success blitzing. The Sooners won the battle up front from start to finish, and it wasn’t even close. Said Snyder: “Our pass protection was porous at best.”
3. Defensive line. You know that old joke about a quarterback having so much time in the pocket that he could ________? Well, you could fill in the blank any way you wanted after this game. K-State’s defensive line couldn’t get anywhere near Jones. He had all kinds of time to read through his progressions, and decide which talented receiver he wanted to pass to. He was flat-footed for just about his all throws, and his receivers were often open. No wonder he eclipsed 500 yards despite sitting most of the fourth quarter.
4. John Hubert. The second half was an utter disaster for K-State, so it’s hard to say just how much Hubert’s fumble at the end of the second quarter hurt his team. But it certainly didn’t help. The Wildcats were simply trying to run the clock out near midfield, but he lost the ball with 19 seconds remaining. That led to an Oklahoma field goal, which allowed it to take a 23-17 halftime lead, and seemed to swing momentum its way the rest of the game.
5. Tysyn Hartman. The senior safety took a few bad angles while trying to make tackles and wasn’t great in coverage, either.
“Tackling was an issue all day,” Hartman said. “We couldn’t get them to the ground. They had us in the open field all day. Those are hard tackles to make, but we’ve got to make them. A lot of their yards came after first contact.
“… We normally pride ourselves in pursuit, and being able to get the ball-carrier down. It had kind of been slipping on us the last few weeks and it blew up on us today.”
Coaching critique
Bill Snyder has been a master of second-half adjustments this season, but Bob Stoops was the savvier coach on Saturday. The Sooners only led 23-17 at half, but did absolutely everything right in the second half and won going away 58-17. When Oklahoma defenders knew K-State had to pass the ball, they pressured Klein with tenacity. He had no chance, and the game was over. Afterward, Snyder blamed himself for the loss. “I’m not confident that we really went to the field at the beginning of the ballgame mentally prepared to play,” he said.
Fandemonium
K-State welcomed a nice crowd of 51,004 to Snyder Family Stadium on Saturday. The place was rocking in the first half. Not so much in the second. Fans also seemed intrigued by the piece of wood that players carried onto the field. It featured the word “family.” Snyder said it was a prop used by Chiefs radio man Mitch Holthus during a Friday conversation with the team. “It has some significant meaning to our team and to our players,” Snyder said.
Key play you may have overlooked
On K-State’s first drive, the Wildcats faced a 3rd-and-4 near midfield. They called a pass play to try to pick up the first down, and Chris Harper was open as he streaked across the middle on a slant route. Collin Klein saw him, but was too heavily pressured to get him the ball. He ended up taking an 11-yard sack. It was a sign of things to come.
Statistically speaking
If K-State was going to win this game, it had to throw for significant yardage. The Wildcats passed for 58 yards. Oklahoma threw for 520.
Quote to note
“We’ve just got to keep hanging together. I’m pretty confident. We’ve shown a lot of resiliency all year and this will be a testament of that.” — Collin Klein