MANHATTAN, Kan. | The members of the band led the cheer. &#8220;Block that kick,&#8221; they repeated, almost in unison.</p><p>It didn&#8217;t matter that Kansas State was minutes away from a 58-28 home spanking by No. 7 Texas Tech going final. Nor did it matter that it was the first punt of the afternoon for the Red Raiders, who racked up a mind-boggling 626 yards and scored on all eight trips inside the Wildcats&#8217; 20.</p><p>The band members didn&#8217;t care at all that their voices, more so than roughly half of the announced 43,614 remaining in attendance Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, were louder, and in some cases, more off-key than everyone else.</p><p>They wanted to see something positive.</p><p>And in that regard, K-State coach Ron Prince can relate.</p><p>&#8220;This is a very challenging time for all of us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We will fight and compete to get this thing turned around.&#8221;</p><p>For the third consecutive game, the Wildcats allowed 500-plus yards. The three-game total is a staggering 1,712 yards, although K-State linebacker John Houlik, who started Saturday and saw his first extensive action since his three-game suspension for a DUI arrest, said it doesn&#8217;t matter how many yards a team gives up.</p><p>&#8220;As long as you win the game,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Problem is, K-State went 1-2 in those three games, allowing Louisville, Louisiana-Lafayette and Tech to average 44.3 points. And Saturday, the Wildcats&#8217; worst home defeat since a 39-3 loss to Nebraska on Oct. 5, 1996, was particularly brutal as it was the Big 12 opener, which also means it&#8217;s nearing the halfway point of the regular season. Prince vented following the loss in Louisville, explaining that many of the problems that were covered up by large margins of victory in the first two games were exposed against the Cardinals.</p><p>Not much has been corrected, and K-State is entering the meat of the conference schedule.</p><p>&#8220;We have a lot of things to fix,&#8221; junior safety Chris Carney said. &#8220;We had a good week of practice. The problem today was execution. &#8230; Today, we were definitely in trouble. There is concern, but there is no reason it can&#8217;t be fixed.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s tough to get well, especially defensively, against an offensive juggernaut like the Red Raiders. And if Tech quarterback Graham Harrell wasn&#8217;t in the Heisman Trophy discussion before, he might have created a conversation of his own after what he did to K-State.</p><p>Harrell completed 38 of 51 passes for 454 yards and six touchdowns, the most thrown in a Big 12 game this season. He even ran in another score &#8212; on fourth-and-goal at K-State&#8217;s 1 early in the fourth quarter. He also became the leading passer in school history.</p><p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t say that he was the best quarterback I&#8217;ve ever coached, but I would say he is the best in the nation this year,&#8221; Tech coach Mike Leach said.</p><p>For a game that was supposed to be a shootout, Harrell and the Red Raiders did their part. For the first time all season, K-State&#8217;s offense was mediocre. Josh Freeman completed only 13 of 28 passes for 170 yards and a touchdown, adding two scores on the ground. According to Brandon Banks, who was held to three catches for 51 yards, the whole offense was out of sync.</p><p>&#8220;This drives me crazy,&#8221; Freeman said. &#8220;We looked at this as a challenge. We were excited. After the first drive, it felt good. Second drive, it felt good. It went down from there.&#8221;</p><p>After both teams traded touchdowns and the score was tied at 14, the game changed in the second quarter. It had &#8220;legs,&#8221; Prince said, and it ran away from the Wildcats.