Kansas State stumbles as big favorite in surprising 24-20 loss to West Virginia
A late-season test against a middling opponent could easily be defined as a trap game for the Kansas State football team, and the Wildcats fell directly into it on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
West Virginia played one of its best games of the year and surprisingly defeated K-State 24-20 in front of a less-than-capacity crowd of 46,332.
The Wildcats entered the game as 14-point favorites over a team that had lost five straight games and hadn’t scored more than 17 points in more than a month, but none of that mattered on this clear and sunny afternoon. K-State (6-4, 3-4 Big 12) suffered its head-scratching loss of the Chris Klieman era against West Virginia (4-6, 2-5) and Neal Brown, one of the coaches that athletic director Gene Taylor strongly considering hiring during last year’s coaching search.
“It’s real surprising, man,” K-State running back James Gilbert said after rushing for 60 yards and a touchdown. “This wasn’t supposed to be a close game. We were supposed to be the more physical team and play for a whole four quarters. It wasn’t supposed to be this close. I’m real disappointed in my football team right now.”
Skylar Thompson guided K-State to within 30 yards of a come-from-behind victory, and it briefly looked like he might save the day when he scrambled to his right and receiver Dalton Schoen got open behind the West Virginia secondary. But Thompson didn’t throw the ball quite hard enough, and Mountaineers defender Hakeem Bailey undercut Schoen for an interception that clinched the game for his team.
Had the pass traveled another yard, the Wildcats probably would have won.
“If I put a little bit more on it, it’s a touchdown,” Thompson said after passing for 299 yards and a touchdown. “I had exactly what I was anticipating. We had a good look at it, I just missed. There’s no other way to put it.”
Schoen thought he was going to catch his second touchdown pass of the day when the ball was in the air.
“That is one I’m sure the whole team is going to want back,” Schoen said. “We were trying to run a delay thing and get something open running down the middle. I know Skylar was on the run and kind of underthrew it a little bit. I have got to do a better job coming back to that and breaking it up or making a play on the ball. But I know Skylar wants it back, too.”
Another key play came on West Virginia’s final scoring drive of the afternoon. The Mountaineers trailed 20-17 early in the fourth quarter and faced a third-and-22 at midfield when Jarret Doege connected with Bryce Wheaton for a 50-yard touchdown pass.
K-State nearly sacked Doege on the play, but he extended things to his left and K-State’s secondary forgot about Wheaton, leaving him all alone behind the defense.
“It was a blown coverage,” Klieman said, “but I didn’t see where he came from on the third and extra long. That can’t happen to give up a touchdown. All that being said, that’s not the play that beat us. That was a key factor, but there’s so many other things throughout the game that could’ve helped determine that fate.”
West Virginia took a 24-20 lead and never looked back. K-State twice crossed midfield and had opportunities to score but was unable to capitalize on both.
It was a shocking result of the Wildcats, who seemed in control when they began the third quarter with a 7 minute, 4 second touchdown drive that spanned 70 yards and was capped by a touchdown run from Gilbert on an option pitch from Thompson.
K-State amassed 421 yards on the day, well above the 319 that West Virginia had on offense. But it didn’t matter.
Thompson said K-State players overlooked the Mountaineers and took this game for granted.
“It’s a good lesson for us,” Thompson said. “We can’t do that.”
K-State was better than West Virginia in most areas, and it showed on the stat sheet. The Wildcats gained 421 yardsd and held the Mountaineers to 319.
They won in most statistics other than the scoreboard. That was most evident in the first half, when the Wildcats trailed 14-13 when the half was over.
It was a strange dynamic. K-State gained 259 yards and moved the ball efficiently behind Thompson and Gilbert while holding West Virginia to 197 yards, but the Mountaineers cashed in on a pair of red-zone trips with passing touchdowns and took an early lead.
The presence of Doege at quarterback might have come as a surprise to Klieman and his team. West Virginia had started Oklahoma transfer Austin Kendall at quarterback in every other game, but coach Neal Brown opted to roll with Doege in this one.
It was a good move. West Virginia entered Saturday on a five-game losing streak and hadn’t eclipsed 17 points in more than a month, but it played with new energy in the first quarter behind a new quarterback.
Doege completed 11 of 17 passes for 120 yards and a pair of touchdowns to George Campbell. K-State’s defense has been particularly stingy against the pass in scoring situations, allowing just five passing TDs in its first nine games, but it had trouble against the Mountaineers.
The first touchdown pass was an impressive 19-yard throw over double coverage. The second was made possible by a personal-foul penalty against K-State defensive tackle Trey Dishon on a field-goal attempt from West Virginia. Casey Legg missed the kick, but the penalty gave the Mountaineers a first down that they ultimately parlayed into a touchdown.
But K-State answered with some offensive success of its own.
The Wildcats opened the day with a 68-yard touchdown pass from Thompson to senior receiver Schoen on their first play from scrimmage. It was a big play that K-State fans hoped would set a positive tone for the remainder of the game. But the Mountaineers didn’t let the Wildcats pull away.
K-State managed to get a pair of field goals from Blake Lynch in the first half to pull within 14-13 at the break.
Once Klieman made some adjustments, it looked like K-State might pull away in the second half. But West Virginia made more plays when it mattered most.
“This is a huge win,” Brown said. “It felt like a long time coming, kind of been knocking on the door. I told our staff earlier in the week, I really feel like we’d be in the position at some point to win a game or win more than one game that we shouldn’t have. We come in here against the No. 24 team in the country that beat Oklahoma on this field. It’s big for our program.”
The Wildcats will try and bounce back next week at Texas Tech.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Kansas State stumbles as big favorite in surprising 24-20 loss to West Virginia."